The Princess 

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THE PRINCESS 

A MEDLEY 



BY 

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON 



WITH NOTES BY 

ROSE HENDERSON, Ph. B. 

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH, DRAKE UNIVERSITY 



A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 
CHICAGO 






NOTES AND ORIGINAL MATTER 
COPYRIGHT 1910 

BY 

LEWIS WORTHINGTON SMITH 



gCI.A256^50 



i 
ho 



THE PRINCESS 

A MEDLEY 

PROLOGUE 

Sir Walter Vivian all a summer's day 
Gave his broad lawns until the set of sun 
Up to the people : thither flock'd at noon 
His tenants, wife and child, and thither half 
The neighboring borough with their Institute 
Of which he was the patron. I was there 
From college, visiting the son, — the son 
A Walter too, — with others of our set, 
Five others : we were seven at Vivian-place. 

" The Princess." Since this poem was first published, in 1847, it has 
undergone various changes, the last of them having been made 
in the fifth edition, which appeared in 1853. 

A Medley. Justly so called because of the combination of sportive- 
ness and seriousness in the poem, as well as the bringing to- 
gether of scenes and incidents characteristic of widely separated 
centuries. 

1 Sir Walter Vivian. It is believed that Edmund Henry Lushing- 

ton — to whom, in the second edition, the poem is dedicated, 
and who was a warm friend and great admirer of the poet — 
was the original of Sir Walter Vivian. 

2 Lawns: open glades in the woods; grassy fields. Not the grass- 

plots which in America are known by the name. 
5 Institute: a society organized for the education as well as the 
entertainment of the working-people of the town. A festival 
given for the Maidstone Mechanics' Institute in Mr. Lushing- 
ton's park is here described. 
3 



4 THE PRINCESS 

And me that morning Walter show'd the house, 
Greek, set with busts : from vases in the hall 
Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names, 
Grew side by side ; and on the pavement lay 
Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park, 
Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time ; 
And on the tables every clime and age 
Jumbled together ; celts and calumets, 
Claymore and snow-shoe, toys in lava, fans 
Of sandal, amber, ancient rosaries. 
Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere. 
The cursed Alalayan crease, and battle-clubs 
From the isles of palm : and higher on the walls, 
Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer. 
His own forefathers' arms and armor hung. 



11 Greek, set with busts. That is, Greek in the style of its archi- 

tecture, with busts here and there around the walls. 

12 Their names. That is, their scientific names. 

14 Abbey-ruin. In many private parks in England the ruins of 

ancient abbeys are still preserved. 

15 Antmonites: spiral-shaped fossil shells. The £rst bones of Time: 

fossils of every sort. 

16 Every clime and age. That is, curios ancient and modern, from 

various countries. 

17 Celts: implements of prehistoric times, made of stone or metal 

and resembling an ax or a chisel. Calumets: Indian peace- 
pipes. 

18 Claymore: a large two-handed, double-edged sword formerly used 

by the Scottish Highlanders. 

20 Laborious orient ivory, etc.: a series of ivory balls — one within 

the other and sometimes beautifully carved — ingeniously fash- 
ioned by oriental artisans. This line has been cited by more 
than one critic as an example of Tennyson's faculty for choos- 
ing words which by their very sound suggest the character of 
that which they describe. 

21 Crease (also spelled creese and kris): a sort of dagger or sWord 

having a serpentine blade. 



PROLOGUE 5 

And " this," he said, " was Hugh's at Agincourt ; 
And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon : 
A good knight he ! we keep a chronicle 
With all about him," — which he brought, and I 
Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights 
Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings ^* 

Who laid about them at their wills and died ; 
And mixt with these a lady, one that arm'd 
Her own fair head, and sallying thro' the gate. 
Had beat her foes with slaughter from her walls. 

" O miracle of women,'* said the book, 
" O noble heart who, being strait-besieged 
By this wild king to force her to his wish, 
Nor bent, nor broke, nor shunn'd a soldier's death, 
But now when all was lost or seem'd as lost — 
Her stature more than mortal in the burst *^ 

Of sunrise, her arm lifted, eyes on fire — 
Brake with a blast of trumpets from the gate, 
And, falling on them like a thunderbolt, 
She trampled some beneath her horses' heels. 
And some were whelm'd with missiles of the wall, 
And some were push'd with lances from the rock, 
And part were drown'd within the whirling brook : 
O miracle of noble womanhood!" 

25 Agincourt: a village in France near which, in 1415, the English 

under Henry V defeated the French forces. 

26 Ascalon: a city about forty miles from Jerusalem in the vicinity 

of which several battles between the Crusaders and the Saracens 
took place. 
31 Laid about them at their wills. That is, fought whom it pleased 
them to fight. 

35 Miracle of women: wonder among women. 

36 Strait-besieged: closely besieged. 

45 Whelm'd: overwhelmed (of which it is not, however, an abbrevia- 
tion). 



6 THE PRINCESS 

So sang the gallant glorious chronicle ; 
And, I all rapt in this, " Come out," he said, '"'' 

" To the Abbey : there is Aunt Elizabeth 
And sister Lilia with the rest." We went 
(I kept the book and had my finger in it) 
Down thro' the park : strange was the sight to me ; 
For all the sloping pasture murmur'd, sown 
With happy faces and with holiday. 
There moved the multitude, a thousand heads : 
The patient leaders of their Institute 
Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font of stone 
And drew, from butts of water on the slope, ^'^ 

The fountain of the moment, playing, now 
A twisted snake, and now a rain of pearls, 
Or steep-up spout whereon the gilded ball 
Danced like a wisp : and somewhat lower down 
A man with knobs and wires and vials fired 
A cannon ; Echo answer'd in her sleep 
From hollow fields : and here were telescopes 
For azure views ; and there a group of girls 
In circle waited, whom the electric shock 
Dislink'd with shrieks and laughter : round the lake ^^ 
A little clock-work steamer paddling plied 
And shook the lilies : perch'd about the knolls 

59 Taught them zvith facts. That is, entertained them with practical 
demonstrations, such as the experiments in hydraulics, electricity, 
and the like, referred to in the following lines. 

63 Steep-up: perpendicular. A compound used by Shakespeare and 

again by Tennyson in " Queen Mary." 

64 Wisp: Will-o'-the-wisp. 

65, 66 A man with knobs, etc. That is, he fired a cannon by means 

of electricity. 
68 Azure views: views of the sky. 
70 Dislink'd. In many compounds Tennyson uses dis for the more 

common un. 



PROLOGUE 

A dozen angry models jetted steam : 
A petty railway ran : a fire-balloon 
Rose gem-like up before the dusky groves 
And dropt a fairy parachute and past : 
And there thro' twenty posts of telegraph 
They flash'd a saucy message to and fro 
Between the mimic stations ; so that sport 
Went hand in hand with science ; otherwhere 
Pure sport : a herd of boys with clamor bowl'd 
And stump'd the wicket ; babies roll'd about 
Like tumbled fruit in grass ; and men and maids 
Arranged a country dance, and flew thro' light 
And shadow, while the twangling violin 
Struck up with Soldier-laddie, and overhead 
The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime 
Made noise with bees and breeze from end to end. 

Strange was the sight and smacking of the time ; 
And long we gazed, but satiated at length 
Came to the ruins. High-arch'd and ivy-claspt, 
Of finest Gothic lighter than a fire, 
Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they gave 
The park, the crowd, the house ; but all within 



76 Past. Frequently used by Tennyson instead of passed. 

80 Otherwhere: elsewhere. 

82 Stump'd the wicket: played cricket. 

85 Twangling: twanging. 

86 Soldier-laddie: a Scotch song. 

87 Ambrosial: divinely fragrant. 

88 Made noise with bees and breeze. Another instance of that faculty 

of the poet's mentioned in connection with 1. 20. 

89 Smacking: characteristic. 

90 Satiated. Accent on the first syllable, the second a obscure. 

92 Lighter than a Hre. Gothic architecture makes for lightness of 

effect. 

93 Of: made by. Gave: showed; revealed. 



8 THE PRINCESS 

The sward was trim as any garden lawn : 

And here we lit on Aunt Elizabeth, 

And Lilia with the rest, and lady friends 

From neighbor seats ; and there was Ralph himself, 

A broken statue propt against the wall, 

As gay as any. Lilia, wild with sport. 

Half child, half woman as she was, had wound 

A scarf of orange round the stony helm. 

And robed the shoulders in a rosy silk, 

That made the old warrior from his ivied nook 

Glow like a sunbeam : near his tomb a feast 

Shone, silver-set ; about it lay the guests, 

And there we join'd them : then the maiden Aunt 

Took this fair day for text, and from it preach'd 

An universal culture for the crowd, 

And all things great ; but we, unworthier, told 

Of college : he had climb'd across the spikes 

And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars. 

And he had breathed the Proctor's dogs ; and one 

Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men, 

But honeying at the whisper of a lord ; 

And one the Master, as a rogue in grain 

Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory. 



98 Neighbor seats: neighboring country-seats. Ralph: the old Sir 
Ralph referred to in 1. 26. 

102 Stony helm: the helmet of the stone statue. 

109 An universal. Should be a universal. 

Ill, 112 He had clim'b across the spikes, and he, etc.: this one 
[of the narrators] had scaled the walls about the college [after 
the gates were closed for the night]; and that one, etc. 

113 He had breathed the Proctor's dogs: another had led the as- 
sistants of the proctor — the officer of the college whose work 
it is to maintain discipline — a chase in pursuit of them. These 
assistants the students call the proctor's bull-dogs. 

115 Honeying: growing sweet. 

116 Master: the head of the college. 



PROLOGUE 

But while they talk'd, above their heads I saw 
The feudal warrior lady-clad ; which brought 
My book to mind : and opening this I read 
Of old Sir Ralph a page or two that rang 
With tilt and tourney ; then the tale of her 
That drove her foes with slaughter from her walls, 
And much I praised her nobleness, and *' Where," 
Ask'd Walter, patting Lilia's head (she lay 
Beside him) " lives there such a woman now?" 

Quick answer'd Lilia, " There are thousands now 
Such women, but convention beats them down : 
It is but bringing up ; no more than that : 
You men have done it : how I hate you all ! 
Ah, were I something great ! I wish I were 
Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then, 
That love to keep us children! O I wish 
That I were some great princess, I would build 
Far ofif from men a college like a man's. 
And I would teach them all that men are taught ; 
We are twice as quick !" And here she shook aside 
The hand that play'd the patron with her curls. 

And one said smiling, " Pretty were the sight 
If our old halls could change their sex, and flaunt 
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, 
And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair. 



119 Lady-clad: adorned like a lady, with the scarf wound about his 

helmet and the silken covering throv/n over his shoulders. 
128 Convention: conventionality. 

138 Play'd the patron with: caressed in a patronizing way. 

139 Were: would be. 

141, 142 Prudes for proctors, etc. Notice Tennyson's fondness for 
alliteration as shown throughout the poem. 



10 THE PRINCESS 

I think they should not wear our rusty gowns, 
But move as rich as Emperor-moths, or Ralph 
Who shines so in the corner ; yet I fear, 
If there were many Lilias in the brood, 
However deep you might embower the nest, 
Some boy would spy it." 

At this upon the sward 
She tapt her tiny silken-sandal'd foot : 
" That's your light way ; but I would make it death ^'' 
For any male thing but to peep at us." 

Petulant she spoke, and at herself she laugh'd ; 
A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, 
And sweet as English air could make her, she : 
But Walter hail'd a score of names upon her, 
And " petty Ogress," and " ungrateful Puss," 
And swore he long'd at college, only long'd. 
All else was well, for she-society. 
They boated and they cricketed ; they talk'd 
At wine, in clubs, or art, of politics ; ** 

They lost their weeks ; they vext the souls of deans ; 
They rode ; they betted ; made a hundred friends. 
And caught the blossom of the flying terms, 
But miss'd the mignonette of Vivian-place, 
The little hearth-flower Lilia. Thus he spoke, 
Part banter, part affection, 

" True," she said. 



143 Rusty gowns: the black gowns worn by university students. 

144 Emperor-moths: large, handsome moths closely related to the silk- 

worm moth. 

156 Ogress: an imaginary monster supposed to devour human beings. 

161 Lost their weeks: lost, because of absence for a certain number 
of days, the credit for one of the nine terms of actual resi- 
dence required of the recipient of the bachelor's degree. 



PROLOGUE 11 

" We doubt not that. O yes, you miss'd us much, 
ril stake my ruby ring upon it you did." 

She held it out ; and as a parrot turns 
Up thro' gilt wires a crafty loving eye, ^"^^ 

And takes a lady's finger with all care, 
And bites it for true heart and not for harm, 
So he with Lilia's. Daintily she shriek'd 
And wrung it. " Doubt my word again !" he said. 
" Come, listen ! here is proof that you were miss'd : 
We seven stay'd at Christmas up to read ; 
And there we took one tutor as to read : 
The hard-grain'd Muses of the cube and square 
Were out of season : never man, I think, 
So molder'd in a sinecure as he: ^®** 

For while our cloisters echo'd frosty feet, 
And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, 
We did but talk you over, pledge you all 
In wassail ; often, like as many girls — 
Sick for the hollies and the yews of home — 
As many little trifling Lilias — ^play'd 
Charades and riddles as at Christmas here, 
And zvhafs my thought and zvhen and where and hozv, 
And often told a tale from mouth to mouth 
As here at Christmas." 

She remember'd that : *^^ 

A pleasant game, she thought : she liked it more 

176 Read: study. 

178 Muses of the cube and square: mathematics. 

181 Cloisters: covered walks around the inner courts of monastic 
and collegiate buildings. 

184 Wassail: the drinking of healths. 

185 Sick for the hollies and the yews. That is, longing to be at home 

for the Christmas holidays, which are typified by the holly 
and the yew. 



12 THE PRINCESS 

Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. 

But these — what kind of tales did men tell men, 

She wonder'd, by themselves ? 

A half-disdain 
Perch'd on the pouted blossom of her lips ; 
And Walter nodded at me : " He began, 
The rest would follow, each in turn ; and so 
We forged a sevenfold story. Kind ? what kind ? 
Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms, 
Seven-headed monsters only made to kill -^^ 

Time by the fire in winter." 

" Kill him now, 
The tyrant ! kill him in the summer too," 
Said Lilia ; *' Why not now ?" the maiden Aunt. 
" Why not a summer's as a winter's tale ? 
A tale for summer as befits the time, 
And something it should be to suit the place, 
Heroic, for a hero lies beneath, 
Grave, solemn!" 

Walter warp'd his mouth at this 
To something so mock-solemn, that I laugh'd 
And Lilia woke with sudden-shrilling mirth -'^^ 

An echo like a ghostly woodpecker. 
Hid in the ruins ; till the maiden Aunt 
(A little sense of wrong had touch'd her face 
With color) turn'd to me with "As you will; 

192 Magic music: a game in which something is hidden and the one 
seeking it is guided by music, that grows louder as he ap- 
proaches the spot where the article is concealed and softer as 
he moves away from it. 

199 Chimeras: odd fancies. Crotchets: whims. Solecisms: ex- 
travagances. 
208 Warp'd: twisted. 



PROLOGUE 13 

Heroic if you will, or what you will, 
Or be yourself your hero if you will." 

" Take Lilia, then, for heroine," clamor'd he, 
" And make her some great Princess, six feet high. 
Grand, epic, homicidal ; and be you 
The Prince to win her!" 

" Then follow me, the Prince,"-^ 
I answer'd, " each be hero in his turn ! 
Seven and yet one, like shadows in a dream. — 
Heroic seems our Princess as required — 
But something made to suit with time and place, 
A Gothic ruin and a Grecian house, 
A talk of college and of ladies' rights, 
A feudal knight in silken masquerade. 
And, yonder, shrieks and strange experiments 
For which the good Sir Ralph had burnt them all — 
This were a medley ! we should have him back ^^^ 
Who told the ' Winter's Tale ' to do it for us. 
No matter : we will say whatever comes. 
And let the ladies sing us, if they will. 
From time to time, some ballad or a song 
To give us breathing-space." 

So I began, 
And the rest follow'd ; and the women sang 
Between the rougher voices of the men. 
Like linnets in the pauses of the wind: 
And here I give the story and the songs. 



229 Had burnt them: would have had them burned [as witches]. 

230 Were: would be. 

231 Winter's Tale: a comedy by Shakespeare. 



14 THE PRINCESS 



A Prince I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, 
Of temper amorous, as the first of May, 
With lengths of yellow ringlet like a girl, 
For on my cradle shone the Northern star. 

There lived an ancient legend in our house. 
Some sorcerer, whom a far-off grandsire burnt 
Because he cast no shadow, had foretold, 
Dying, that none of all our blood should know 
The shadow from the substance, and that one 
Should come to fight with shadows and to fall : ^^ 

For so, my mother said, the story ran. 
And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, 
An old and strange aft'ection of the house. 
Myself too had weird seizures^ Heaven knows what : 
On a sudden in the midst of men and day. 
And while I walk'd and talk'd as heretofore, 
I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts, 

4 For on my cradle shone the Northern star. That is, he was a 
native of a northern country. 

7 Cast no shadow. He who cast no shadow was known to have sold 
his soul to Satan. For an interesting story of such a man the 
student should read The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl, 
the Man Who Lost His Shadow, by Adelbert von Chamisso, a 
noted German lyric poet. The tale, dealing with the misery 
resulting to Schlemihl from his having sold his shadow, is a true 
classic. It has been translated by Dr. Frederic Henry Hedge. 
14 Weird seizures. Lines 5-21 and all the other references to these 
seizures were added in the fifth edition of the poem. It is a 
question whether their addition was an improvement or not. 
Dawson considers them injurious to the unity of the work, de- 
claring that " they confuse the simple conception of his [the 
Prince's] character and graft on to his personality the foreign 
and somewhat derogatory idea of catalepsy." Other critics feel 
them to be necessary to emphasize the poetic temperament of the 
Prince and excuse his apparent weakness. 



PART I 15 

And feel myself the shadow of a dream. 

Our great court-Galen poised his gilt-head cane, 

And paw'd his beard, and mutter'd " catalepsy." ^® 

My mother pitying made a thousand prayers ; 

My mother was as mild as any saint. 

Half-canonized by all that look'd on her, 

So gracious was her tact and tenderness : 

But my good father thought a king a king ; 

He cared not for the affection of the house ; 

He held his scepter like a pendant's wand 

To lash offense, and with long arms and hands 

Reach'd out, and pick'd offenders from the mass 

For judgment. 

Now it chanced that I had been, ^^ 
While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd 
To one, a neighboring Princess : she to me 
Was proxy-wedded with a bootless calf 
At eight years old ; and still from time to time 
Came murmurs of her beauty from the South, 
And of her brethren, youths of puissance ; 
And still I wore her picture by my heart. 
And one dark tress ; and all around them both 
Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their 
queen. 



19 Court-Galen: court-physician. Galen, a noted Greek physician and 
scientist, lived in the second century A. D. 

23 Half -canonised : regarded as almost a saint. 

27 Pedant's zvand : schoolmaster's rod. 

33 Proxy-wedded with a bootless calf. In mediaeval times marriage by 
proxy was not rare. The bridgegroom who was unable to be 
present at the ceremony was represented by a proxy, who went 
through the form of marriage in his place. Sometimes as a part 
of the ceremony the proxy bared his leg to the knee. 

36 Puissance: power, strength. 



16 THE PRINCESS 

But when the days drew nigh that I should wed, *^ 
My father sent ambassadors with furs 
And jewels, gifts, to fetch her: these brought back 
A present, a great labor of the loom ; 
And therewithal an answer vague as wind : 
Besides, they saw the king ; he took the gifts ; 
He said there was a compact ; that was true : 
But then she had a will ; was he to blame ? 
And maiden fancies ; loved to live alone 
Among her women; certain,. would not wed. 

That morning in the presence room I stood °'* 

With Cyril and with Florian, my two friends : 
The first, a gentleman of broken means 
(His father's fault) but given to starts and bursts 
Of revel ; and the last, my other heart, 
And almost my half-self, for still we moved 
Together, twinn'd as horse's ear and eye. 

Now, while they spake, I saw my father's face 
Grow long and troubled like a rising moon, 
Inflamed with wrath : he started on his feet. 
Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent ^^ 

The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof 
From skirt to skirt ; and at the last he sware 
That he would send a hundred thousand men, 

44 Therewithal: therewith, at the same time. 

49 Would not wed. The Princess contended that at the age of eight 

years she was too young to consent to the marriage and there- 
fore was not bound by the contract. 

50 Presence-room: audience chamber. 

60 Snow'd it doivn. That is, tearing the letter into small bits, threw 
them down so that they fell like flakes of snow. 



PART I 17 

And bring her in a whirlwind : then he chew'd 

The thrice-turn'd cud of wrath, and cook'd his spleen, 

Communing with his captains of the war. 

At last I spoke : " My father, let me go. 
It cannot be but some gross error lies 
In this report, this answer of a king, 
Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable ; ^® 

Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, 
Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame, 
May rue the bargain made." And Florian said : 
" I have a sister at the foreign court, 
Who moves about the Princess ; she, you know, 
Who wedded with a nobleman from thence : 
He, dying lately, left her, as I hear, 
The lady of three castles in that land : 
Thro' her this matter might be sifted clean." 
And Cyril whisper'd : " Take me with you too. ^^ 

Then laughing, " What, if these weird seizures come 
Upon you in those lands, and no one near 
To point you out the shadow from the truth ! 
Take me : I'll serve you better in a strait ; 
I grate on rusty hinges here " : but " No ! " 
Roar'd the rough king, " you shall not ; we ourself 
Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead 
In iron gauntlets : break the council up." 

But when the council broke, I rose and past 
Thro' the wild woods that hung about the town ; "-'^ 
Found a still place, and pluck'd her likeness out ; 

65 Cook'd his spleen: nursed his wrath. In olden times the spleen wa? 

considered the seat of anger. 
84 Strait: difficult situation; emergency. 



18 THE PRINCESS 

Laid it on flowers, and watch *d it lying bathed 

In the green gleam of dewy-tassel'd trees : 

What were those fancies? wherefore break her troth? 

Proud look'd the lips : but while I meditated 

A wind arose and rush'd upon the South, 

And shook the songs, the whispers, and the shrieks 

Of the wild woods together ; and a Voice 

Went with it, " Follow, follow, thou shalt win." 

Then, ere the silver sickle of that month ^^^ 

Became her golden shield, I stole from court 
With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived, 
Cat-footed thro' the town and half in dread 
To hear my father's clamor at our backs 
With Ho ! from some bay-window shake the night ; 
But all was quiet : from the bastion'd walls 
Like threaded spiders, one by one, we dropt, 
yVnd flying reach'd the frontier: then we crost 
To a livelier land ; and so by tilth and grange, 
And vines, and blowing bosks of wilderness, "^ 

We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers, 
And in the imperial palace found the king. 



93 Dewy-tasscVd: hung with catkins as in the hazel-wood [Hallam 

Tennyson]. 
96 Rush'd upon: blew toward. 

100 Silver sickle: new moon. 

101 Golden shield: full moon. 

106 Bastion'd walls: walls having ramparts at the top. 

107 Like threaded spiders. That is, as spiders suddenly drop straight 

while spinning out their webs. 

109 Livelier land. They were going toward the south and consequent- 

ly the verdure showed more life. Tilth: cultivated land. Grange: 
farmhouse. 

110 Blowing bosks of wilderness: uncultivated thickets blooming with 
;.i- flowers [Dawson]. 

111 ;1 Mother-city : capital; metropolis. 



PART I 19 

His name was Gama ; crack'd and small his voice, 
But bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind 
On glassy water drove his cheek in lines ; 
A little dry old man, without a star, 
Not like a king: three days he feasted us, 
And on the fourth I spake of why we came. 
And my betroth'd. " You do us, Prince," he said, 
Airing a snowy hand and signet gem, ^-^ 

"All honor. We remember love ourself 
In our sweet youth : there did a compact pass 
Long summers back, a kind of ceremony — 
I think the year in which our olives fail'd. 
I would you had her, Prince, with all my heart, 
With my full heart : but there were widows here, 
Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche ; 
They fed her theories, in and out of place 
Maintaining that with equal husbandry 
The woman were an equal to the man. *^° 

They harp'd on this ; with this our banquets rang ; 
Our dances broke and buzz'd in knots of talk ; 
Nothing but this ; my very ears were hot 
To hear them : knowledge, so my daughter held. 
Was all in all : they had but been, she thought, 
As children ; thev must lose the child, assume 



116 Without a star: wearing no orders or military decorations. 

120 Signet-gem: a seal ring in which the seal is cut on a precious 

stone. 

121 Ourself. In this reading we follow Rolfe, who argues that in the 

last edition the poet everywhere else changed the form to our- 
self and therefore must have intended to do so here, though 
even in the edition of 1884 ourselves is given. 
129 Husbandry: here, training, 

135 They. That is, women in general. 

136 They must lose the child. That is, they must cease to act and 

think like children and become serious, purposeful women. Cf. 
1. 133, Prologue. 



20 THE PRINCESS 

The woman : then, Sir, awful odes she wrote, 

Too awful, sure, for what they treated of. 

But all she is and does is awful ; odes 

About this losing of the child ; and rhymes ^*® 

And dismal lyrics, prophesying change 

Beyond all reason : these the women sang ; 

And they that know such things — I sought but peace ; 

No critic I— would call them masterpieces : 

They master'd me. At last she begg'd a boon, 

A certain summer-palace which I have 

Hard by your father's frontier : I said no. 

Yet being an easy man, gave it : and there. 

All wild to found an University 

For maidens, on the spur she fled ; and more ^^® 

We know not, — only this : they see no men, 

Not even her brother Arac, nor the twins 

Her brethren, tho' they love her, look upon her 

As on a kind of paragon ; and I 

(Pardon me saying it) were much loth to breed 

Dispute betwixt myself and mine : but since 

'(And I confess with right) you think me bound 

In some sort, I can give you letters to her; 

And yet, to speak the truth, I rate your chance 

Almost at naked nothing." 

Thus the king; "<» 

And r, tho' nettled that he seem'd to slur 
With garrulous ease and oily courtesies 
Our formal compact, yet, not less (all frets 
But chafing me on fire to find my bride) 



149 An. Should be a. 

150 On the spur: post-haste. 

155 Pardon me saying. For is understood. 

163 Frets: irritations. 



PART I 21 

Went forth again with both my friends. We rode 

Many a long league back to the North. At last 

From hills, that look'd across a land of hope, 

We dropt with evening on a rustic town 

Set in a gleaming river's crescent-curve, 

Close at the boundary of the liberties ; ^^° 

There, enter'd an old hostel, call'd mine host 

To council, plied him with his richest wines, 

And showed the late-writ letters of the king. 

He with a long low sibilation, stared 
As blank as death in marble : then exclaim'd 
Averring it was clear against all rules 
For any man to go : but as his brain 
Began to mellow, " If the king," he said, 
'* Had given us letters, was he bound to speak ? 
The king would bear him out " ; and at the last — ^^^ 
The summer of the vine in all his veins — 
" No doubt that we might make it worth his while. 
She once had past that way ; he heard her speak : 
She scared him; life! he never saw the like; 
She look'd as grand as doomsday and as grave : 
And he, he reverenced his liege-lady there ; 
He always made a point to post with mares ; 
His daughter and his housemaid were the boys : 
The land, he understood, for miles about 

167 A land of hope. Remember that it was spring-time. 

170 Liberties: the outlying grounds of the university. 

172 Plied him with: pressed upon him. 

174 Sibilation: hissing sound. Here, whistle of astonishment. 

175 As blank as death in marble: with as fixed and expressionless a 

gaze as that of a death-mask. 
178 Began to mellow: began to yield to the influence of the wine. 
181 The summer of the vine: the warmth of the wine. 
188 Boys: postilions and stable-boys. 



22 THE PRINCESS 

Was till'd by women ; all the swine were sows, 
And all the dogs " — 

But while he jested thus, 
A thought flash'd thro' me which I clothed in act, 
Remembering how we three presented Maid, 
Or Nymph, or Goddess, at high tide of feast, 
In masque or pageant at my father's court. 
We sent mine host to purchase female gear ; 
He brought it, and himself, a sight to shake 
The midriff of despair with laughter, holp 
To lace us up, till each in maiden plumes 
We rustled : him we gave a costly bribe 
To guerdon silence, mounted our good steeds, 
And boldly ventured on the liberties. 

We followed up the river as we rode. 
And rode till midnight, when the college lights 
Began to glitter firefly-like in copse 
And linden alley : then we past an arch. 
Whereon a woman-statue rose with wings 
From four wing'd horses dark against the stars ; 
And some inscription ran along the front, 
But deep in shadow : further on we gain'd 
A little street half garden and half house, 
But scarce could hear each other speak for noise 
Of clocks and chimes, like silver hammers falling 



192 Clothed in act: put into execution. 

193 Presented: represented. 

194 High tide of feast: festival time. 

198 A sight to shake the midriff of despair with laughter. That is, 
one that would have made Despair herself laugh heartily. Holp. 
The old past tense of help. 

201 To guerdon: to be a recompense for; to reward. 

202 Liberties. Cf. L 170. 



PART I 23 

On silver anvils, and the splash and stir 
Of fountains spouted up and showering down 
In meshes of the jasmine and the rose ; 
And all about us peal'd the nightingale, 
Rapt in her song, and careless of the snare. 

There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign, 
By two sphere lamps blazon'd like Heaven and Earth "^ 
With constellation and with continent, 
Above an entry: riding in, we call'd ; 
A plump-arm'd ostleress and a stable wench 
Came running at the call, and help'd us down. 
Then stept a buxom hostess forth, and sail'd. 
Full-blown, before us into rooms which gave 
Upon a pillar'd porch, the bases lost 
In laurel : her we ask'd of that and this, 
And who were tutors. " Lady Blanche," she said, 
" And Lady Psyche." " Which was prettiest, ^30 

Best-natured?'' " Lady Psyche." " Hers are we," 
One voice, we cried ; and I sat down and wrote 
In such a hand as when a field of corn 
Bows all its ears before the roaring East : 

" Three ladies of the Northern empire pray 
Your Highness would enroll them with your own, 
As Lady Psyche's pupils." 

219 Pallas: the Greek name for Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. 

220 Blazon'd like Heaven and Earth. That is, on one was depicted 

the heavens and on the other the terrestrial globe. 

226 Gave: opened out upon. Cf. 1. 93 of Prologue. 

229 Tutors. At the English universities each student is under a tutor, 
who advises him concerning his choice of studies and super- 
vises his work, 

233, 234 In such a hand, etc. An apt description of the delicate, 
slanting handwriting of women of Tennyson's day. 



24 THE PRINCESS 

This I seal'd : 
The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll, 
And o'er his head Uranian Venus hung, 
And raised the blinding bandage from his eyes. ^*^ 
I gave the letter to be sent with dawn ; 
And then to bed, where half in doze I seem'd 
To float about a glimmering night, and watch 
A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight swell 
On some dark shore just seen that it was rich. 

II 

As thro' the land at eve we went, 

And pluck'd the ripen'd ears, ' 
We fell out, my wife and I, 
O we fell out I know not why, 

And kiss'd again with tears. 
And blessings on the falling out 

That all the more endears, 
When we fall out with those we love 

And kiss again with tears! 
For when we came where lies the child 

We lost ia other years, 
There above the little grave, 
O there above the little grave. 

We kiss'd again with tears. 

239 Uranian Venus: the heavenly Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus, who 

typifies spiritual love in contrast to common, earthly love. 

240 Raised the blinding bandage. Cupid — in Roman mythology the 

blind god of love — is sometimes shown blindfolded. 

244 MuMed moonlight: moonlight shining through vaporous clouds. 

Song. The songs separating the seven parts of the poem are supposed 
to be sung by the women of the party as suggested in 1. 233- 
235 of the Prologue. They did not appear in the first two edi- 
tions, though the poet had included them in his original scheme 
of the work. Notice that in all of them the theme is love — love 
for husband, wife, lover, child. In the recurrence of this theme 
the poet suggests to us again and again the inevitable failure of 
any scheme of life which ignores or suppresses feelings that are 
natural and right. 



PART II 25 

At break of day the College Portress came : 

She brought us Academic silks, in hue 

The lilac, with a silken hood to each, 

And zoned with gold ; and now when these were on, 

And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, 

She curtseying her obeisance, let us know 

The Princess Ida waited. Out we paced, 

I first, and following thro' the porch that sang 

All round with laurel, issued in a court 

Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths ^^ 

Of classic frieze, with ample awnings gay 

Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers. 

The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes, 

Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst ; 

And here and there on lattice edges lay 

Or book or lute ; but hastily we past, 

And up a flight of stairs into the hall. 

There at a board by tome and paper sat, 
With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne. 
All beauty compass'd in a female form, ^ 

The Princess ; liker to the inhabitant 
Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, 
Than our man's earth ; such eyes were in her head, 
And so much grace and power, breathing down 



2 Academic silks: silk gowns worn by students. 

4 Zoned with gold: having golden girdles. 

8, 9 Sang all around with laurel: was filled with the music of the 
rustling laurel branches that surrounded it. 
10 Compact: made. Boss'd: carved in relief. 

13 The Muses: in classical mythology, nine goddesses who presided 
over song, poetry, and the arts and sciences. The Graces: three 
beautiful sister goddesses — Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia by 
name — who were regarded as the inspirers of the qualities which 
give attractiveness to wisdom, love, and social intercourse. 



26 THE PRINCESS 

From over her arch'd brows, with every turn 
Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands, 
And to her feet. She rose her height, and said : 

" We give you welcome : not without redound 
Of use and glory to yourselves ye come, 
The first-fruits of the stranger : aftertime, ^° 

And that full voice which circles round the grave, 
Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. 
What ! are the ladies of your land so tall ?" 
" We of the court," said Cyril. " From the court," 
She answer'd, "then ye know the Prince?" and he: 
" The climax of his age ! as tho' there were 
One rose in all the world, your Highness that, 
He worships your ideal." She replied : 
" We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear 
This barren verbiage, current among men, ^^ 

Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. 
Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem 
As arguing love of knowledge and of power ; 
Your language proves you still the child. Indeed, 
We dream not of him : when we set our hand 
To this great work, we purposed with ourself 
Never to wed. You likewise will do well, 
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling 



28 Redound: return, requital. 

30 The stranger: those without King Gama's realm. Aftertime: 

hereafter; or, perhaps, posterity. 

31 That full voice: fame. 

35 Then ye know the Prince? With all her superiority, the Princess 

is not entirely lacking in womanly curiosity. 
40 Barren verbiage: unprofitable, empty wordiness. 

44 The child. See 1. 136, Part I. 

45 We dream not of him. However, she is not averse to hearing 

something concerning him. 



PART II 27 

The tricks which make us toys of men, that so, 
Some future time, if so indeed you will, ^^ 

You may with those self-styled our lords ally 
Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale." 

At those high words, we, conscious of ourselves, 
Perused the matting; then an officer 
Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these : 
Not for three years to correspond with home ; 
Not for three years to cross the liberties ; 
Not for three years to speak with any men ; 
And many more, which hastily subscribed, 
We enter'd on the boards : and " Now," she cried, "^'" 
" Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, our hall ! 
Our statues ! — not of those that men desire, 
Sleek Odalisques, or oracles of mode, 
Nor stunted squaws of West or East ; but she 
That taught the Sabine how to rule, and she 
The foundress of the Babylonian wall. 
The Carian Artemisia strong in war. 



53 Conscious of ourselves. That is, embarrassed by the consciousness 

of the deception they were practicing. 
55 Statutes: rules of the university. 
60 Enter'd on the boards: entered as students. 
63 Odalisques: female slaves in the harem of the Sultan of Turkey. 

Mode: fashion. 

65 She that taught the Sabine: the wood-nymph Egeria, who by her 

wise counsels assisted Numa Pompilius (a Sabine by birth) to 
frame wise laws for Rome, whose second king he was. 

66 The foundress of the Babylonian wall: Semiramis, a legendary As- 

syrian queen who was once believed to have built many great 
cities, Babylon among them. 

67 The Carian Artimisia: the Carian queen who accompanied Xerxes 

in his expedition against Greece. At the battle of Salarais she 
distinguished herself, showing wonderful courage. 



28 THE PRINCESS 

The Rhodope that built the pyramid, 

CleHa, Corneha, with the Pahnyrene 

That fought AureHan, and the Roman brows "^^ 

Of Agrippina. Dwell with these, and lose 

Convention, since to look on noble forms 

Makes noble thro' the sensuous organism 

That which is higher. O lift your natures up ; 

Embrace our aims ; work out your freedom. Girls, 

Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal'd! 

Drink deep, until the habits of the slave, 

The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite 

And slander, die. Better not be at all 

Than not be noble. Leave us ; you- may go : ^® 

To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue 

The fresh arrivals of the week before ; 

For they press in from all the provinces. 

And fill the hive." 

She spoke, and bowing waved 
Dismissal : back again we crost the court 

68 The Rhodope. Rhodopis, here referred to, was a beautiful Thracian 

who was taken to Egypt as a slave. She was given her freedom 
and before her death amassed a fortune, but she did not build 
a pyramid. Perhaps the poet meant to intimate by this mis- 
take made by the Princess that accuracy is not a feminine trait. 

69 Clelia: a Roman maiden who, having been given to Porsena as a 

hostage, escaped on horseback, swimming her steed across the 
River Tiber. She was captured and sent back to Porsena, who 
gave her her liberty as a reward for her bravery. Cornelia: a 
Roman matron, daughter of Scipio Africanus and mother of the 
Gracchi. She was noted for her wisdom as well as for her 
virtues. The Pahnyrene: Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who led 
her people against the Romans under Aurelian, and who was de- 
feated and taken as a captive to Rome. 

71 Agrippina: a noted Roman matron; granddaughter of the Emperor 

Augustus and wife of his general, Germanicus. Like Cornelia, 
she is remembered for her strength of character. 

72 Convention. See I. 128, Prologue. 

73 The sensuous organism: the senses. 

80 Us. The Princess uses the plural of royalty. 



PART II 29 

To Lady Psyche's : as we enter'd in, 

There sat along the forms, Hke morning doves 

That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch, 

A patient range of pupils ; she herself 

Erect behind a desk of satin-wood, , •* 

A quick brunette, well-molded, falcon-eyed, 

And on the hither side, or so she look'd, 

Of twenty summers. At her left, a child, 

In shining draperies, headed like a star. 

Her maiden babe, a double April old, 

Aglaia slept. We sat : the Lady glanced : 

Then Florian, but no livelier than the dame 

That whisper'd "Asses' ears " among the sedge, 

" My sister." " Comely, too, by all that's fair," 

Said Cyril. " O hush, hush !" and she began. ' ^«« 



87 Forms: benches. 

90 A desk of satin-wood. In his Study of the Princess Mr. Dawson 

says: "Very properly ... the path of knowledge, thorny to the 
tyrannous male, is made comfortable there [i. e. in the university 
of the Princess]. The ladies drink in science * Leaning deep in 
broidered down,' as is befitting. Everything matches in that 
university. No common pine — the professional desk is of satin- 
wood." 

91 Quick: animated, lively. 

93 A child. Mr. Dawson calls Psyche's child the heroine of the poem. 

He says: " Ridiculous in the lecture-room, the babe, in the 
poem, as in the songs, is made the central point upon which the 
plot turns; for the unconscious child is the concrete embodiment 
of Nature herself, clearing away all merely intellectual theories 
by her silent influence . . . Whenever the plot thickens the 
babe appears . . . O fatal babe! more fatal to the hopes of 
women than the doomful horse to the proud towers of Ilion; 
for through thee the walls of pride are breached and all the 
conquering affections flock in." Follow the child through the 
story and see how true is the critic's estimate of the part it 
plays. 

94 Headed like a star: with shining golden hair. 

97, 98 The dame, etc. Tennyson follows Chaucer in making it the 
wife of Midas and not his barber who revealed the secret of his 
having asses' ears. 



30 THE PRINCESS 

'' This world was once a fluid haze of light, 
Till toward the center set the starry tides, 
And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 
The planets : then the monster, then the man ; 
Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins, 
Raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate ; 
As yet we find in barbarous isles, and here 
Among the lowest." 

Thereupon she took 
A bird's-eye view of all the ungracious past ; 
Glanced at the legendary Amazon 
As emblematic of a nobler age ; 
Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those 
That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo ; 
Ran down the Persian, Grecian, Roman lines 
Of empire, and the woman's state in each. 
How far from just; till warming with her theme 
She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique 
And little-footed China, touch'd on Mahomet 



101-104 This xvorld was once, etc. This is the nebular hypothesis, 
formulated by the French astronomer LaPlace at about the 
beginning of the nineteenth century. 

105 Woaded: stained with the juice of the woad plant. It is said 
that the ancient Britons painted their bodies with this juice. 

107 As yet: such as yet. 

109 The ungracious past: that is ungracious in its treatment of women. 

112 Appraised : praised. By the Lycian custom children took the family 

name of the mother instead of that of the father, and traced 
their descent in the female line. 

113 Lay at wine. Among the Etruscans the women attended the ban- 

quets with the men. At these, as at all meals, those present 
reclined on couches. Lar [or Lars'] and Lucumo: Etruscan 
titles of honor. 

117 Fulmined: thundere Laws Salique: laws forbidding inheritance 

to pass through a female line. The Salic law in France ex- 
cluded women from the throne. 

118 Little-footed China. So called by her because of the Chinese 

practice of binding the feet of girls and women. Mahomet is 
said to have declared that women were without souls. 



PART II 31 

With much contempt, and came to chivalry ; 

When some respect, however shght, was paid ^^'^ 

To woman, superstition all awry : 

However, then commenced the dawn : a beam 

Had slanted forward, falling in a land 

Of promise ; fruit would follow. Deep, indeed, 

Their debt of thanks to her who first had dared 

To leap the rotten pales of prejudice, 

Disyoke their necks from custom, and assert 

None lordlier than themselves but that which made 

Woman and man. She had founded ; they must build. 

Here might they learn whatever men were taught: ^^^ 

Let them not fear : some said their heads were less : 

Some men's were small ; not they the least of men ; 

For often fineness compensated size : 

Besides the brain was like the hand, and grew 

With using; thence the man's, if more was more ; 

He took advantage of his strength to be 

First in the field: some ages had been lost; 

But woman ripen'd earlier, and her life 

Was longer ; and albeit their glorious names 

Were fewer, scatter'd stars, yet since in truth ^*^ 

The highest is the measure of the man. 

And not the Kaffir, Hottentot, Malay, 

Nor those horn-handed breakers of the glebe, 

But Homer, Plato, Verulam ; even so 

With woman : and in arts of government 



121 Superstition all awry: in spite of superstition. 
125-129 To her who had, etc. That is, to the Princess. 

143 Glebe: soil, ground. 

144 Homer: an epic poet of Greece who flourished about 1000 B. C. 

Plato: a Greek philosopher (429-347 B. C). Verulam: Sir 
Francis Bacon, Baron \'eru]am, an English philosopher and 
statesman (1561-1626). 



32 THE PRINCESS 

Elizabeth and others ; arts of war 

The peasant Joan and others; arts of grace 

Sappho and others vied with any man : 

And, last not least, she who had left her place, 

And bow'd her state to them, that they might grow ^^^ 

To use and power on this Oasis, lapt 

In the arms of leisure, sacred from the blight 

Of ancient influence and scorn. 

At last 
She rose upon a wind of prophecy 
Dilating on the future : " everywhere 
Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, 
Two in the tangled business of the world. 
Two in the liberal oflices of life. 
Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss 
Of science and the secrets of the mind; ^®° 

Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, more ; 
And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth 
Should bear a double growth of those rare souls. 
Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world." 



146 Elizabeth: Queen of England from 1533 to 1603. 

147 The peasant Joan: Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl (born in 

1412) who believed that she had been directly and repeatedly 
commanded by God to espouse the cause of the Orleanist party 
and the Dauphin of France (afterward Charles VII) against 
the Burgundians, who had sworn allegiance to Henry V of 
England. Having persuaded the Dauphin to give her a com- 
mand in the army, she assumed male attire and led her troops 
to victory a number of times, thus making it possible for him 
to be crowned king at Rheims in 1429. Finally captured by 
the Burgundians, she was sold by them to the English, who 
burned her at the stake as a sorceress in 1431 

148 Sappho: a famous poetess of Greece who flourished about 600 B. 

C. Her work is noted for its beauty and feeling. 
149153 She who had, etc. She again refers to the Princess. 
151 Lapt: enfolded. 

156-160 Two heads, etc. That is, a time will come when man and 
woman will work side by side as equals. 



PART II 33 

She ended here, and beckon'd us : the rest 
Parted ; and, glowing full-faced welcome, she 
Began to address us, and was moving on 
In gratulation, till as when a boat 
Tacks and the slacken'd sail flaps, all her voice 
Faltering and fluttering in her throat, she cried, ^^® 

" My brother !" " Well, my sister." " Oh," she said, 
'' What do you here? and in this dress? and these? 
Why, who are these ? a wolf within the fold ! 
A pack of wolves ! the Lord be gracious to me ! 
A plot, a plot, a plot, to ruin all !" 
'' No plot, no plot," he answer'd. " Wretched boy, 
How saw you not the inscription on the gate. 
Let no man enter in on pain of death ?" 
**And if I had," he answer'd, " who could think 
The softer Adams of your Academe, ^®® 

O sister. Sirens tho' they be, were such 
As chanted on the blanching bones of men ?" 
" But you will find it otherwise," she said. 
" You jest : ill jesting with edge-tools ! my vow 
Binds me to speak, and O that iron will, 
That axelike edge unturnable, our Head, 
The Princess !" " Well then, Psyche, take my life 
And nail me like a weasel on a grange 

166 Parted: departed. 

177 The inscription on the gate. See 1. 209, Part I. 

180 Academe: academy. 

181 Sirens: sea nymphs who had the power of charming by their 

song all who heard them, so that the sailors who passed the 
island on which they lived were irresistibly impelled to cast 
themselves into the sea in their desire to see the singers. Siren 
has come to be a term applied to any especially attractive woman, 
and what Florian means is that, though the charms of the 
women of the university, give them great power, they surely 
would not take pleasure in the destruction of men as the real 
Sirens did. 
188 Grange: here, granary. 



34 THE PRINCESS 

For warning ; bury me beside the gate, 

And cut this epitaph above my bones : ^^ 

Here lies a brother by a sister slain. 

All for the common good of womankind/' 

" Let me die too," said Cyril, " having seen 

And heard the Lady Psyche." 

I struck in : 
" Albeit so mask'd, Madam, I love the truth ; 
Receive it ; and in me behold the Prince 
Your countryman, affianced years ago 
To the Lady Ida : here, for here she was, 
And thus (what other way was left?) I came." 
" O Sir, O Prince, I have no country, none ; -'^^ 

If any, this ; but none. Whate'er I was 
Disrooted, what I am is grafted here. 
Affianced, Sir? love-whispers may not breathe 
Within this vestal limit, and how should I, 
Who am not mine, say, live : the thunderbolt 
Hangs silent ; but prepare : I speak ; it falls." 
" Yet pause," I said : " for that inscription there, 
I think no more of deadly lurks therein, 
Than in a clapper clapping in a garth, 
To scare the fowl from fruit : if more there be, -^** 

If more and acted on, what follows ? war ; 
Your own work marr'd : for this your Academe, 
Whichever side be victor, in the halloo 
Will topple to the trumpet down, and pass 
With all fair theories only made to gild 

195 So mask'd. That is, dressed up as he is in women's clothes. 
205 Not mine: not my own mistress. 
207 For: as for. 

209 Clapper: a contrivance for making a noise to scare away the birds. 
Garth: garden. 



PART II 35 

A stormless summer." '' Let the Princess judge 
Of that," she said : " farewell, Sir — and to you. 
I shudder at the sequel, but I go." 

"Are you that Lady Psyche," I rejoin'd, 

" The fifth in line from that old Florian, 220 

Yet hangs his portrait in my father's hall 

(The gaunt old baron with his beetle brow 

Sun-shaded in the heat of dusty fights) 

As he bestrode my grandsire, when he fell, 

And all else fled ? we point to it, and we say, 

The loyal warmth of Florian is not cold, 

But branches current yet in kindred veins." 

'' Are you that Psyche," Florian added ; " she 

With whom I sang about the morning hills. 

Flung ball, flew kite, and raced the purple fly, -^^ 

And snared the squirrel of the glen ? are you 

That Psyche, wont to bind my throbbing brow. 

To smooth my pillow, mix the foaming draught 

Of fever, tell me pleasant tales, and read 

My sickness down to happy dreams? are you 

That brother-sister Psyche, both in one? 

You were that Psyche, but what are you now ?" 

" You are that Psyche," Cyril said, " for whom 

I would be that forever which I seem, 

Woman, if I might sit beside your feet, 240 

And glean your scatter'd sapience." 



222, 223 Beetle-brow Sun-shaded. There has been much discussion 
of this passage. Some critics take it to mean that his eyes 
were shaded from the sun by his shaggy eyebrows; others that 
his forehead was tanned by exposure to the sun. 

224 Bestrode: stood over to protect. 

227 But branches current yet, etc.: but flows to this day in the veins 
of his descendants. 



36 THE PRINCESS 

Then once more, 
" Are you that Lady Psyche," I began, 
*' That on her bridal morn before she past 
From all her old companions, when the king 
Kiss'd her pale cheek, declared that ancient ties 
Would still be dear beyond the southern hills; 
That were there any of our people there 
In want or peril, there was one to hear 
And help them? look! for such are these and I." 
''Are you that Psyche," Florian ask'd, " to whom, "® 
In gentler days, your arrow-wounded fawn 
Came flying while you sat beside the well ? 
The creature laid his muzzle on your lap, 
And sobb'd, and you sobb'd with it, and the blood 
Was sprinkled on your kirtle, and you wept. 
That was fawn's blood, not brother's, yet you wept. 
O by the bright head of my little niece. 
You were that Psyche, and what are you now ?" 
" You are that Psyche," Cyril said again, 
" The mother of the sweetest little maid *"® 

That ever crow'd for kisses." 

" Out upon it ! " 
She answer'd, " peace ! and why should I not play 
The Spartan Mother with emotion, be 
The Lucius Junius Brutus of my kind ? 
Him you call great : he for the common weal, 
The fading politics of mortal Rome, 



255 Kirtle: an outer petticoat. 

263 The Spartan Mother believed it to be her duty to sacrifice natural 

feeling for the public good. 

264 Lucius Junius Brutus, when Roman consul (about 500 B. C), put 

to death his two sons because they had taken part in a con- 
spiracy to restore the Tarquins to power. 



PART II 37 

As I might slay this child, if good need were, 

Slew both his sons : and I, shall I, on whom 

The secular emancipation turns 

Of half this world, be swerved from right to save ^^^ 

A prince, a brother? a little will I yield. 

Best so, perchance, for us, and well for you. 

O hard, when love and duty clash ! I fear 

My conscience will not count me fleckless ; yet — 

Hear my conditions: promise (otherwise 

You perish) as you came, to slip away 

To-day, to-morrow, soon: it shall be said, 

These women were too barbarous, would not learn ; 

They fled, who might have shamed us : promise, all." 

What could we else, we promised each ; and she, -^'* 
Like some wild creature newly-caged, commenced 
A to-and-fro, so pacing till she paused 
By Florian ; holding out her lily arms 
Took both his hands, and smiling faintly said : 
" I knew you at the first ; tho' you have grown 
You scarce have alter'd : I am sad and glad 
To see you, Florian. I give thee to death, 
My brother ! it was duty spoke, not I. 
My needful seeming harshness, pardon it. 
Our mother, is she well ?" 

With that she kiss'd -^« 
His forehead, then, a moment after, clung 
About him, and betwixt them blossom'd up 
From out a common vein of memory 
Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth, 
And far allusion, till the gracious dews 

274 Fleckless: literally, without spot or blemish; here blameless, 
295 Gracious dews: tears. 



38 THE PRINCESS 

Began to glisten and to fall : and while 

They stood, so rapt, we gazing, came a voice, 

" I brought a message here from Lady Blanche." 

Back started she, and turning round we saw 

The Lady Blanche's daughter where she stood, ^*^^ 

Mehssa, with her hand upon the lock, 

A rosy blonde, and in a college gown, 

That clad her like an April daffodilly 

(Her mother's color), with her lips apart, 

And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes, 

As bottom agates seen to wave and float 

In crystal currents of clear morning seas. 

So stood that same fair creature at the door. 
Then Lady Psyche, "Ah — Melissa — you ! 
You heard us ?" and Melissa, " O pardon me ! ^^® 

I heard, I could not help it, did not wish ; 
But, dearest Lady, pray you fear me not, 
Nor think I bear that heart within my breast, 
To give three gallant gentlemen to death." 
" I trust you," said the other, " for we two 
Were always friends, none closer, elm and vine ; 
But yet your mother's jealous temperament — 
Let not your prudence, dearest, drowse, or prove 
The Danaid of a leaky vase, for fear 

304 Her mother's color was yellow, while Psyche's was lilac. 

305 Fair: clear. Bottom agates: agates lying at the bottom of the sea. 
316 Elm and vine. That is, as close as the elm tree and the vine that 

clings to it. 
319 Danaid of a leaky vase: one unable to keep a secret. The 
Danaids were the fifty daughters of King Danaus, all but one 
of whom, in obedience to their father's command, killed their 
husbands. The murderesses were punished in Hades for this 
crime, being condemned forever to try to fill leaky vessels with 
water. 



PART II 39 

This whole foundation ruin, and I lose ^^^ 

My honor, these their lives." " Ah, fear me not," 

Replied Melissa ; " no — I would not tell, 

No, not for all Aspasia's cleverness. 

No, not to answer, Madam, all those hard things 

That Sheba came to ask of Solomon." 

" Be it so," the other, " that we still may lead 

The new light up, and culminate in peace, 

For Solomon may come to Sheba yet." 

Said Cyril, " Madam, he the wisest man 

Feasted the woman wisest then, in halls ®*® 

Of Lebanonian cedar; nor should you 

(Tho', Madam, you should answer, we would ask) 

Less welcome find among us, if you came 

Among us, debtors for our lives to you, 

Myself for something more." He said not what, 

But " Thanks," she answered, " go : we have been too 

long 
Together : keep your hoods about the face ; 
They do so that affect abstraction here. 
Speak little ; mix not with the rest ; and hold 
Your promise : all, I trust, may yet be well." ^** 

We turn'd to go, but Cyril took the child. 
And held her round the knees against his waist, 
And blew the swollen cheek of a trumpeter. 
While Psyche watch'd them, smiling, and the child 

323 Aspasia: a Greek woman of the fifth century B. C, famous for her 

intellectual strength. 

324 Not to answer: not if so doing would enable me to answer 

325 Sheba: the Queen of Sheba, a province of Arabia, who paid King 

Solomon a visit in order to profit by his wisdom. 
327 Culminate: attain the end for which we are striving. 



40 THE PRINCESS 

Push'd her flat hand against his face and laugh'd ; 
And thus our conference closed. 

And then we strolled 
For half the day thro' stately theaters 
Bench'd crescent-wise. In each we sat, we heard 
The grave Professor. On the lecture slate 
The circle rounded under female hands ^^° 

With flawless demonstration : follow'd then 
A classic lecture, rich in sentiment, 
With scraps of thunderous epic lilted out 
By violet-hooded Doctors, elegies 
And quoted odes, and jewels five- words-long 
That on the stretch'd forefinger of all. Time 
Sparkle forever : then we dipt in all 
That treats of whatsoever is, the state, 
The total chronicles of man, the mind, 
The morals, something of the frame, the rock, ^®° 

The star, the bird, the fish, the shell, the flower. 
Electric, chemic laws, and all the rest, 
And whatsoever can be taught and known ; 
Till like three horses that have broken fence, 
And glutted all night long breast-deep in corn, 
We issued gorged with knowledge, and I spoke : 
" Why, Sirs, they do all this as well as we." 
" They hunt old trails," said Cyril, " very well ; 
But when did woman ever yet invent ?" 
" Ungracious !" answer'd Florian ; " have you learnt "^" 
No more from Psyche's lecture, you that talk'd 
The trash that made me sick, and almost sad?" 



353 Lilted out: declaimed musically. Lilt carries with it the idea of 

singing. 
360 Something of the frame: a little physiology. 
372 Trash. That is, Cyril's complimentary speeches to Psyche. 



PART II 41 

" O trash," he said, " but with a kernel in it ! 

Should I not call her wise who made me wise ? 

And learnt ? I learnt more from her in a flash 

Than if my brainpan were an empty hull. 

And every Muse tumbled a science in. 

A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls. 

And round these halls a thousand baby loves 

Fly twanging headless arrows at the hearts, "^^ 

Whence follows many a vacant pang ; but O 

With me. Sir, enter'd in the bigger boy, 

The head of all the golden-shafted firm. 

The long-limb'd lad that had a Psyche too ; 

He cleft me thro' the stomacher ; and now 

What think you of it, Florian? do I chase 

The substance or the shadow ? will it hold ? 

I have no sorcerer's malison on me. 

No ghostly hauntings like his Highness. I 

Flatter myself that always everywhere ^^^ 

I know the substance when I see it. Well, 

Are castles shadows ? Three of them ? Is she 

The sweet proprietress a shadow ? If not. 

Shall those three castles patch my tatter'd coat ? 

For dear are those three castles to my wants, 

And dear is sister Psyche to my heart 



376 Brainpan: skull. 

378 Fallow: uncultivated. Frequently used thus figuratively. 
382 The bigger boy: the more mature Cupid [as contrasted with the 
" baby loves "]. 

384 Psyche: in classical mythology, a beautful maiden who was be- ■• 

loved by Cupid. 

385 Stomacher: an ornamental covering for the breast; part of a 

woman's dress. 
388 Malison: curse. 
392 Castles. See 1. 77, 78, Part I. 



42 THE PRINCESS 

And two dear things are one of double worth ; 
And much I might have said, but that my zone 
Unmann'd me : then the Doctors ! O to hear 
The Doctors ! O to watch the thirsty plants 
Imbibing ! once or twice I thought to roar, 
To break my chain, to shake my mane : but thou 
Modulate me, soul of mincing mimicry ! 
Make liquid treble of that bassoon, my throat ; 
Abase those eyes that ever loved to meet 
Star-sisters answering under crescent brows ; 
Abate the stride which speaks of man, and loose 
A flying charm of blushes o'er this cheek. 
Where they like swallows coming out of time 
Will wonder why they came : but hark the bell 
For dinner, let us go !" 

And in we stream'd 
Among the columns, pacing staid and still 
By twos and threes, till all from end to end 
With beauties every shade of brown and fair 
In colors gayer than the morning mist, 
The long hall glitter'd like a bed of flowers. 
How might a man not wander from his wits 
Pierced thro' with eyes, but that I kept mine own 
Intent on her, who rapt in glorious dreams. 
The second-sight of some Astraean age, 
Sat compass'd with professors : they, the while, 
Discuss'd a doubt and tost it to and fro : 
A clamor thicken'd, mixt with inmost terms 



398 Zone: girdle. That is, his woman's dress. 

420 Astrcpan age. Legend tells us that when the gods ceased to live 
among men Astraea, the goddess of justice, was the last to de- 
part. When the golden age comes she will return to earth. 

423 Inmost: intelligible only to the learned. 



PART II 43 

Of art and science : Lady Blanche alone 
Of faded form and haughtiest lineaments, 
With all her autumn tresses falsely brown, 
Shot sidelong daggers at us, a tiger-cat 
In act to spring. 

At last a solemn grace 
Concluded, and we sought the gardens : there 
One walk'd reciting by herself, and one ^^"* 

In this -hand held a volume as to read, 
And smoothed a petted peacock down with that : 
Some to a low song oar'd a shallop by, 
Or under arches of the marble bridge 
Hung, shadow'd from the heat : some hid and sought 
In the orange thickets : others tost a ball 
Above the fountain- jets, and back again 
With laughter : others lay about the lawns. 
Of the older sort, and murmur'd that their May 
Was passing : what was learning unto them ? **° 

They wish'd to marry ; they could rule a house ; 
Men hated learned women : but we three 
Sat muffled like the Fates ; and often came 
Melissa hitting all we saw with shafts 
Of gentle satire, kin to charity, 
That harm'd not : then day droopt ; the chapel bells 
Call'd us : we left the walks ; we mixt with those 
Six hundred maidens clad in purest white, 
Before two streams of light from wall to wall. 
While the great organ almost burst his pipes, *^^ 

Groaning for power, and rolling thro' the court 

435 Hid and sought: played hide-and-seek. 

443 The Fates: three goddesses — Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos — who 
were supposed to determine the course of human life. Their 
office was to spin the thread of human destiny, and they were 
armed with shears with which they cut it off when they pleased. 



44 THE PRINCESS 

A long melodious thunder to the sound 
Of solemn psalms, and silver litanies, 
The work of Ida, to call down from Heaven 
A blessing on her labors for the world. 



Ill 

Sweet and low, sweet and low, 

Wind of the western sea. 
Low, low, breathe and blow, 

Wind of the western sea! 
Over the rolling waters go, 
Come from the dying moon, and blow, 

Blow him again to me; 
While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps. 

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest. 

Father will come to thee soon; 
Rest, rest, on mother's breast, 

Father will come to thee soon; 
Fathe rwill come to his babe in the nest, 
Silver sails all out of the west 

Under the silver moon: 
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. 

Morn in the white wake of the morning star 
Came furrowing all the orient into gold. 
We rose, and each by other drest with care 
Descended to the court that lay three parts 
In shadow, but the Muses' heads were touch'd 
Above the darkness from their native East. 

There while we stood beside the fount, and watch'd 
Or seem'd to watch the dancing bubble, approach'd 

454 The work of Ida. That is, composed by the Princess. 



PART III 45 

Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep, 

Or grief, and glowing round her dewy eyes '' ^^ 

The circled Iris of a night of tears ; 

"And fly," she cried, " O fly, while yet you may ! 

My mother knows " : and when I ask'd her " how," 

" My fault," she wept, " my fault ! and yet not mine ; 

Yet mine in part. O hear me, pardon me ! 

My mother, 'tis her wont from night to night 

To rail at Lady Psyche and her side. 

She says the Princess should have been the Head, 

Herself and Lady Psyche the two arms ; 

And so it was agreed when first they came ; -** 

But Lady Psyche was the right hand now, 

And she the left, or not or seldom used ; 

Hers more than half the students, all the love. 

And so last night she fell to canvass you : 

Her countrywomen ! she did not envy her. 

* Who ever saw such wild barbarians ? 

Girls ? — more like men ! ' and at these words the snake, 

My secret, seem'd to stir within my breast ; 

And O, Sirs, could I help it, but my cheek 

Began to burn and burn, and her lynx eye ^'^ 

To fix and make me hotter, till she laugh 'd : 

* O marvelously modest maiden, you ! 

Men ! girls, like men ! why, if they had been men 
You need not set your thoughts in rubric thus 
For wholesale comment,' Pardon, I am shamed 
That I must needs repeat for my excuse 

9 Wan: paleness. 

11 Iris: here, dark rings under the eyes. 
24 Fell to canvass: came to examine or scrutinize. 
34 In rubric: in red. That is, like certain words in old books, which 

were put in red to make them more conspicuous. The mother 

is referring, of course, to the girl's blushes. 



46 THE PRINCESS 

What looks so little graceful: * men ' (for still 

My mother went revolving on the word) 

'And so they are, — very like men indeed — 

And with that woman closeted for hours !' *** 

Then came these dreadful words out one by one, 

' Why — ^these — are — men* : I shudder'd : 'and you 

know it.' 
* O ask me nothing/ I said : *And she knows too, 
And she conceals it.' So my mother clutch'd 
The truth at once, but with no word from me ; 
And now thus early risen she goes to inform 
The Princess : Lady Psyche will be crush'd ; 
But you may yet be saved, and therefore fly : 
But heal me with your pardon ere you go." 

" What pardon, sweet Melissa, for a blush? " ^^ 

Said Cyril : " Pale one, blush again ; than wear 
Those lilies, better blush our lives away. 
Yet let us breathe for one hour more in Heaven," 
He added, " lest some classic Angel speak 
In scorn of us, ' They mounted, Ganymedes, 
To tumble, Vulcans, on the second morn.' 
But I will melt this marble into wax 
To yield us farther furlough " : and he went. 



Melissa shook her doubtful curls, and thought 
He scarce would prosper. " Tell us," Florian ask'd, 



60 



37 What looks, etc. She refers to her blushes. 

55 Ganymedes. Ganymede, the most beautiful of mortal men, according 

to Greek mythology, was taken up to Olympus, to serve as cup- 
bearer at the feasts of the Gods. 

56 Vulcans. Vulcan, the god of fire, having offended Jupiter, was cast 

out of Olympus. 
59 Shook her doubtful curls. That is, doubtfully shook her curly head. 



PART III 47 

" How grew this feud betwixt the right and left." 

" O long ago," she said, ''betwixt these two 

Division smolders hidden ; 't is my mother, 

Too jealous, often fretful as the wind 

Pent in a crevice : much I bear with her : 

I never knew my father, but she says 

(God help her!) she was wedded to a fool; 

And still she rail'd against the state of things. 

She had the care of Lady Ida's youth. 

And from the Queen's decease she brought her up. '^^ 

But when your sister came she won the heart 

Of Ida: they were still together, grew 

(For so they said themselves) inosculated; 

Consonant chords that shiver to one note ; 

One mind in all things : yet my mother still 

Affirms your Psyche thieved her theories, 

And angled with them for her pupil's love : 

She calls her plagiarist ; I know not what : 

But I must go ; I dare not tarry," and light. 

As flies the shadow of a bird, she fled. ®° 

Then murmured Florian, gazing after her: 
"An open-hearted maiden, true and pure. 
If I could love, why this were she : how pretty 
Her blushing was, and how she blush'd again. 
As if to close with Cyril's random wish ! 
Not like your Princess cramm'd with erring pride. 
Nor like poor Psyche whom she drags in tow." 

" The crane," I said, " may chatter of the crane, 
The dove may murmur of the dove, but I 

73 Inosculated: united intimately. 

74 Consonant: harmonizing. Shiver: vibrate. 



48 THE PRINCESS 

An eagle clang an eagle to the sphere. *® 

My princess, O my princess ! true she errs, 

But in her own grand way ; being herself 

Three times more noble than three score of men, 

She sees herself in every woman else, 

And so she wears her error like a crown 

To blind the truth and me : for her, and her, 

Hebes are they to hand ambrosia, mix 

The nectar ; but — ah, she — whene'er she moves 

The Samian Here rises, and she speaks 

A Memnon smitten with the morning sun.'' ^^ 

So saying from the court we paced," and gain'd 
The terrace ranged along the northern front, 
And leaning there on those balusters, high 
Above the empurpled champaign, drank the gale 
That blown about the foliage underneath, 
And sated with the innumerable rose. 
Beat balm upon our eyelids. Hither came 
Cyril, and yawning " O hard task," he cried : 
" No fighting shadows here ! I forced a way 



90 Clang is here used transitively. Sphere: upper air. 

96 For her, and her: as for Psyche and Melissa. 

97 Hebes. In Grecian mythology Hebe was the goddess who personi- 

fied youth, and whose office it was to fill the cups of the gods 
with nectar. 
99 Samian Here. Here or Hera was the wife of Zeus, chief of the 
Greek gods. The island of Samos was a favorite resort of hers. 
100 Memnon: a colossal statue near Thebes, which was believed by 
the Greeks to be that of Memnon, a hero of the Trojan War. 
When the first rays of the sun fell on it in the morning, this 
statue emitted a peculiar twanging noise, which caused it to be 
celebrated as having vocal powers. 

103 Balusters. Accent on second syllable. 

104 Champaign: open country. 

106 Sated with the innumerable rose: laden with the scent of the in- 
numerable roses in the gardens below. 



PART III 49 

Thro' solid opposition crabb'd and gnarl'd. *^® 

Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump 

A league of street in summer solstice down, 

Then hammer at this reverend gentlewoman. 

I knock'd and, bidden, enter'd ; found her there 

At point to move, and settled in her eyes 

The green malignant light of coming storm. 

Sir, I was courteous, every phrase well-oil'd, 

As man's could be ; yet maiden-meek I pray'd 

Concealment : she demanded who we were, 

And why we came ? I fabled nothing fair, "® 

But, your example pilot, told her all. 

Up went the hush'd amaze of hand and eye. 

But when I dwelt upon your old affiance. 

She answered sharply that I talk'd astray. 

I urged the fierce inscription on the gate, 

And our three lives. True — we had limed ourselves 

With open eyes, and we must take the chance. 

But such extremes, I told her, well might harm 

The woman's cause. ' Not more than now,' she said, 

* So puddled as it is with favoritism.' ^^^ 

I tried the mother's heart. Shame might befall 

Melissa, knowing, saying not she knew : 

Her answer was, * Leave me to deal with that.' 

I spoke of war to come and many deaths, 

111 Prime: primeval. 

115 At point to move: on the point of moving, [i. e., of taking steps 

to punish Psyche by revealing the deception practiced upon the 

Princess]. 

120 Fabled nothing fair: invented no deceptive stories. 

121 Your example pilot: following your example. 

122 Up went the hush'd amaze, etc. That is, she raised her hands and 

cast up her eyes in amazement, saying nothing. 
126 Limed ourselves: walked into a trap. In olden times birds were 
trapped by means of a sticky substance called bird-lime, which 
was spread on branches upon which they were likely to alight. 



50 THE PRINCESS 

And she replied, her duty was to speak, 

And duty duty, clear of consequences. 

I grew discouraged, Sir ; but since I knew 

No rock so hard but that a little wave 

May beat admission in a thousand years, 

I recommenced : ' Decide not ere you pause. ^** 

I find you here but in the second place. 

Some say the third — the authentic foundress you. 

I offer boldly : we will seat you highest : 

Wink at our advent ; help my prince to gain 

His rightful bride, and here I promise you 

Some palace in our land, where you shall reign 

The head and heart of all our fair she-world. 

And your great name flow on with broadening time 

For ever.' Well, she balanced this a little, 

And told me she would answer us to-day, ^'^^ 

Meantime be mute: thus much, nor more I gain'd." 

He ceasing, came a message from the Head. 
" That afternoon the Princess rode to take 
The dip of certain strata to the North. 
Would we go with her ? we should find the land 
Worth seeing; and the river made a fall 
Out yonder " : then she pointed on to where 
A double hill ran up his furrowy forks 
Beyond the thick-leaved platans of the vale. 

Agreed to, this, the day fled on thro' all *®* 

Its range of duties to the appointed hour. 
Then summoned to the porch we went. She stood 

144 Wink at: pretend ignorance of; connive at. 

154 The dip: the angle of inclination of layers, or strata, of earth or 

rock. Students of geology are taught to ascertain such angles. 
159 Platans: plane trees. 



PART III 51 

Among her maidens, higher by the head, 

Her back against a pillar, her foot on one 

Of those tame leopards. Kittenlike he roll'd 

And paw'd about her sandal. I drew near ; 

I gazed. On a sudden m}^ strange seizure came 

Upon me, the weird vision of our house : 

The Princess Ida seem'd a hollow show, 

Her gay-furr'd cats a painted fantasy, ^^® 

Her college and her maidens empty masks, 

And I myself the shadow of a dream. 

For all things were and were not. Yet I felt 

My heart beat thick with passion and with awe ; 

Then from my breast the involuntary sigh 

Brake, as she smote me with the light of eyes 

That lent my knee desire to kneel, and shook 

My pulses, till to horse we got, and so 

Went forth in long retinue following up 

The river as it narrow'd to the hills. ^^^ 

I rode beside her and to me she said : 
" O friend, we trust that you esteem'd us not 
Too harsh to your companion yestermorn ; 
Unwillingly we spake." '' No — not to her." 
I answer'd, " but to one of whom we spake 
Your Highness might have seem'd the thing you say." 
"Again ?" she cried, " are you ambassadresses 
From him to me? we give you, being strange, 
A license : speak, and let the topic die." 

I stammer'd that I knew him — could have wish'd — ^^^ 
" Our king expects — was there no precontract ? 
There is no truer-hearted — ah, you seem 

179 Retinue. Accent on second syllable 



52 THE PRINCESS 

All he prefigured, and he could not see 
The bird of passage flying south but long'd 
To follow: surely, if your Highness keep 
Your purport, you will shock him even to death, 
Or baser courses, children of despair." 

" Poor boy," she said, " can he not read — no books ? 
Quoit, tennis, ball — no games ? nor deals in that 
Which men delight in, martial exercise ? "°° 

To nurse a blind ideal like a girl, 
Methinks he seems no better than a girl ; 
As girls were once, as we ourself have been : 
We had our dreams ; perhaps he mixt with them : 
We touch on our dead self, nor shun to do it, 
Being other — since we learnt our meaning here. 
To lift the woman's fallen divinity 
Upon an even pedestal with man." 

She paused, and added with a haughtier smile, 
"And as to precontracts, we move, my friend, ^*** 

At no man's beck, but know ourself and thee, 

Vashti, noble Vashti ! Summon'd out 

She kept her state, and left the drunken king 
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms." 

"Alas, your Highness breathes full East," I said, 
" On that which leans to you ! I know the Prince, 

1 prize his truth : and then how vast a work 



212 Vashti: the queen of King Ahasueras, who commanded her to ap- 
pear before his court, that all might see her great beauty. She 
refused and was deposed, Esther being made queen in her place. 

214 Shushan: the ancient capital of Persia. 

215 Breathes full East: shows the same proud spirit shown by the 

eastern queen. 



PART III 53 

To assail this gray pre-eminence of man ! 

You grant me license; might I use it? think; 

Ere half be done perchance your life may fail ; --'* 

Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan, 

And takes and ruins all ; and thus your pains 

May only make that footprint upon sand 

Which old-recurring waves of prejudice 

Resmooth to nothing : might I dread that you, 

With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds 

For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss 

Meanwhile what every woman counts her due. 

Love, children, happiness ?" 

And she exclaim'd, 
" Peace, you young savage of the Northern wild ! -^^ 
What ! tho' your Prince's love were like a God's. 
Plave we not made ourself the sacrifice? 
You are bold indeed : we are not talk'd to thus : 
Yet will we say for children, would they grew 
Like field-flowers everywhere ! we like them well : 
But children die ; and let me tell you, girl, 
Howe'er you babble, great deeds cannot die ; 
They with the sun and moon renew their light 
For ever, blessing those that look on them. 
Children — that men may pluck them from our hearts, ^^^ 
Kill us with pity, break us with ourselves — 
O — children — there is nothing upon earth 
More miserable than she that has a son 
And sees him err : nor would we work for fame ; 
Tho^ she perhaps might reap the applause of Great, 
Who learns the one pou sto whence after-hands 

218 Gray: ancient. 

246 The one pott sto. The Princess has in mind the saying of Archi- 
medes, a noted Greek mathematician : " Give me where I may 
stand [a place to stand on] and I will move the world." 



54 THE PRINCESS 

May move the world, tho' she herself effect 

But little: wherefore up and act, nor shrink 

For fear our solid aim be dissipated 

By frail successors. Would, indeed, we had been, ^-^^ 

In lieu of many mortal flies, a race 

Of giants living each a thousand years, 

That we might see our own work out, and watch 

The sandy footprint harden into stone." 

I answered nothing, doubtful in myself 
If that strange poet-princess with her grand 
Imaginations might at all be won. 
And she broke out interpreting my thoughts : 

" No doubt we seem a kind of monster to you ; 
We are used to that : for women, up till this -^^ 

Cramp 'd under worse than South-sea-isle taboo, 
Dwarfs of the gynaeceum, fail so far 
In high desire, they know not, cannot guess 
How much their welfare is a passion to us. 
If we could give them surer, quicker proof — 
O if our end were less achievable 
By slow approaches than by single act 
Of immolation, any phase of death, 
We were as prompt to spring against the pikses, 



261 Taboo: the setting apart either as sacred or as forbidden [according 

to a custom of the Polynesians and other races of the South 
Pacific] 

262 Gynsceum: that part of a Greek dwelling occupied by the women. 
269 Spring against the pikes. At the battle of Sempach (1386), in 

which fourteen hundred Swiss routed four thousand Austrians, 
the Swiss patriot Arnold von Winkelried rushed up to the 
enemy's line, and grasping as many spears as possible in his 
arms, forced them into his own breast, thus making a break 
through which his comrades could pass. 



PART III 55 

Or down the fiery gulf as talk of it. ^^" 

To compass our dear sisters' liberties." 

She bow'd as if to veil a noble tear ; 
And up we came to where the river sloped 
To plunge in cataract, shattering on black blocks 
A breath of thunder. O'er it shook the woods, 
And danced the color, and, below, stuck out 
The bones of some vas<- bulk that lived and roar'd 
Before man was. She gazed awhile and said, 
" As these rude bones to us, are we to her 
That will be." " Dare we dream of that," I ask'd, -""^ 
" Which wrought us, as the workman and his work, 
That practice betters ? " " How," she cried, " you love 
The metaphysics ! read and earn our prize, 
A golden brooch : beneath an emerald plane 
Sits Diotima, teaching him that died 
Of hemlock ; our device ; wrought to the life ; 
She rapt upon icr subject, he on her: 
For there are schools for all." "And yet,'' I said, 
" Methinks I have not found among them all 
One anatomic." " Nay, we thought of that," '^^ 

She answered, " but it pleased us not : in truth 
We shudder but to dream our maids should ape 

270 The £ery gulf. About 3 GO B. C. a great crack in the ground 
appeared in the Roman Forum. It was declared by the sooth- 
sayers that only the sacrifice of a life would cause it to close. 
Thereupon Marcus Curtius rode his horse into the abyss, which 
immediately closed up, 

277 Some vast bulk: some prehistoric monster. 

280-282 Dare we dream, etc. That is, dare we consider the Creator 
an ordinary workman, whose skill increases with practice? 

285 Diotima: a priestess of Mantinea, noted for her wisdom and as 
having instructed the Greek philosopher Socrates, who was con- 
demned to die by drinking poison. 

288 Schools: courses of study in a university. 

290 One anatomic. See 1. 360, Part II. 



56 THE PRINCESS 

Those monstrous males that carve the living hound, 

And cram him with the fragments of the grave, 

Or in the dark dissolving human heart, 

And holy secrets of this microcosm, 

Dabbling a shameless hand with shameful jest, 

Encarnalize their spirits : yet we know 

Knowledge is knowledge, and this matter hangs : 

Howbeit ourself, foreseeing casualty, ^°® 

Nor willing men should come among us, learnt, 

For many weary moons before we came. 

This craft of healing. Were you sick, ourself 

Would tend upon you. To your question now, 

Which touches on the workman and hi§ work. 

Let there be light and there was light : 't is so : 

For was, and is, and will be, are but is ; 

And all creation is one act at once, 

The birth of light: but we that are not all, 

As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that, ^^^ 

And live, perforce, from thought to thought, and make 

One act a phantom of succession : thus 

Our weakness somehow shapes the shadow. Time ; 

But in the shadow will we work and mold 

The woman to the fuller day." 

She spake 
With kindled eyes : we rode a league beyond. 
And, o'er a bridge of pinewood crossing, came 
On flowery levels underneath the crag, 
Full of all beauty. " O how sweet," I said 
(For I was half-oblivious of my mask), "* 

293 Carve the living hound: practice vivisection, 

294 Cram him, etc. That is, inoculate him with disease germs, 

296 Microcosm: a little world; hence, a man. Applied here to the 

human body. 
298 Encarnalise: brutalize. 2-99 Hangs: awaits decision. 



PART III 57 

" To linger here with one that loved us !" " Yea," 

She ansvver'd, " or with fair philosophies 

That lift the fancy ; for indeed these fields 

Are lovely, lovelier not the Elysian lawns, 

Where paced the Demigods of old, and saw 

The soft white vapor streak the crowned towers 

Built to the Sun" : then, turning to her maids, 

" Pitch our pavilion here upon the sward ; 

Lay out the viands." At the word, they raised 

A tent of satin, elaborately wrought ^^® 

With fair Corinna's triumph ; here she stood. 

Engirt with many a florid maiden-cheek. 

The woman-conqueror ; woman-conquer 'd there 

The bearded Victor of ten-thousand hymns, 

And all the men mourn'd at his side : but we 

Set forth to climb ; then, climbing, Cyril kept 

With Psyche, with Melissa Florian, I 

With mine afiianced. Many a little hand 

Glanced like a touch of sunshine on the rocks, 

Many a light foot shone like a jewel set ^'^^ 

In the dark crag : and then we turn'd, we wound 

About the clififs, the copses, out and in. 

Hammering and clinking, chattering stony names 

Of shale and hornblende, rag and trap and tuff, 

Amygdaloid and trachyte, till the sun 

Grew broader toward his death and fell, and all 

The rosy heights came out above the lawns. 

324 Elysian lawns: lawns of Elysium. 

327 Built to the sun: rising toward the sky. 

331 Fair Corinna's triumph. Corinna was a lyric poetess of Greece 
who flourished about 500 B. C. She was famous for her 
beauty and also for her five victories over Pindar, the celebrated 
Theban poet, with whom she competed in certain poetical con- 
tests. 

343 Hammering. They were collecting mineralogical specimens. 



58 THE PRINCESS 



IV 



The splendor falls on castle walls 

And snowy summits old in story; 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear. 
And thinner, clearer, farther going! 
O sweet and far from clifif and scar 
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! 
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O love, they die in yon rich sky. 

They faint on hill or field or river; 
Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 
And grow for ever and for ever. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying. 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. 

" There sinks the nebulous star we call the sun. 
If that hypothesis of theirs be sound," 
Said Ida ; " let us down and rest " ; and we 
Down from the lean and wrinkled precipices. 
By every coppice-feather'd chasm and cleft, 
Dropt thro' the ambrosial gloom to where below 
No bigger than a glowworm shone the tent 
Lamp-lit from the inner. Once she lean'd on me, 

Song. Scar: steep, rocky height. 

2 That hypothesis: the nebular hypothesis of LaPlace. See 1. 101 
104, Part II. 

5 Coppice-feather'd : lightly fringed with foliage. 

6 Ambrosial gloom. Cf. 1. 87, Prologue. 
8 The inner: within. 



PART IV 59 

Descending; once or twice she lent her hand, 

And blissful palpitations in the blood *** 

Stirring a sudden transport rose and fell. 

But when we planted level feet, and dipt 
Beneath the satin dome and enter'd in, 
There leaning deep in broider'd down we sank 
Our elbows ; on a tripod in the midst 
A fragrant flame rose, and before us glow'd 
Fruit, blossom, viand, amber wine, and gold. 

Then she, " Let some one sing to us ; lightlier move 
The minutes fledged with music " : and a maid, 
Of those beside her, smote her harp and sang. ^^ 

" Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, 
Tears from the depth of some divine despair 
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, 
In looking on the happy autumn-fields, 
And thinking of the days that are no more. 

" Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, 

That brings our friends up from the underworld. 

Sad as the last which reddens over one 

That sinks with all we love below the verge; 

So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. so 

" Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 

The earliest pipe of half-waken'd birds 

To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 

The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; 

So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. 

12 Planted level feet: reached level ground. 
12, 13 Dipt Beneath the satin dome, etc.: entered the tent. 
14 Broider'd down. That is, soft cushions covered witli embroidery. 
17 Gold. That is, possibly, golden wine, but more probably vessels of 
gold. 



60 THE PRINCESS 

" Dear as remember'd kisses after death, 

And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd 

On lips that are for others; deep as love, 

Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; 

O Death in Life, the days that are no more." ^o 

She ended with such passion that the tear 
She sang of shook and fell, an erring pearl 
Lost in her bosom : but with some disdain 
Answer'd the Princess, " If indeed there haunt 
About the molder'd lodges of the past 
So sweet a voice and vague, fatal to men, 
Well needs it we should cram our ears with wool 
And so pace by : but thine are fancies hatch'd 
In silken-folded idleness ; nor is it 
Wiser to weep a true occasion lost ""^ 

But trim our sails, and let old bygones be. 
While down the streams that float us each and all 
To the issue, goes, like glittering bergs of ice, 
Throne after throne, and molten on the waste 
Becomes a cloud : for all things serve their time 
Toward that great year of equal mights and rights. 
Nor would I fight with iron laws, in the end 
Found golden : let the past be past : let be 
Their cancel'd Babels: tho' the rough kex break 
The starr'd mosaic, and the beard-blown goat ^"^ 

45 Moldered lodges: old dwellings thought of figuratively as tlie in- 
sufficient shelter of old thoughts. 

47 Cram our ears with wool. The Princess probably has in mind the 
story of how Ulysses, before passing the island of the Sirens, 
put wax into the ears of his sailors, so that they might not hear 
the fatal song. (See note for 1. 181, Part II.) 

59 Babels. See first part of note for 1. 466, Part IV. Kex: hemlock, 
here, wild growth of any sort. 

60, 61 The beard-blown goat, etc. Tennyson, in a letter to Dawson, 
explains that this " involves a sense of the wind blowing the 
beard on the height of the ruined pillar." 



PART IV 61 

Hang on the shaft, and the wild fig-tree split 
Their monstrous idols, care not while we hear 
A trumpet in the distance pealing news 
Of better, and Hope, a poising eagle, burns 
Above the unrisen morrow " : then to me, 
" Know you no song of your own land," she said, 
" Not such as moans about the retrospect. 
But deals with the other distance and the hues 
Of promise; not a death's-head at the wine?" 

Then I remember'd one myself had made, ^" 

What time I watch'd the swallow winging south 
From mine own land, part made long since, and part 
Now while I sang, and maidenlike as far 
As I could ape their treble did I sing. 

" O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying south, 
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves, 
And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee. 

" O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each. 
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, 
And dark and true and tender is the North. so 

" O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light 
Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill, 
And cheep and twitter twenty million loves. 

" O were I thou that she might take me in, 
And lay me on her bosom, and her heart 
Would rock the snowy cradle till I died. 

64 Burns: casts its glow, 

67 The retrospect: the past. 

68 The other distance: the future. 

69 Death's-head. The Egyptians used to have at their banquets the 

wooden image of a corpse, to remind them that death was 
inevitable. 



62 THE PRINCESS 

" Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love, 
Delaying as the tender ash delays 
To clothe herself, when all the woods are green? 

"O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown; »o 

Say to her, I do but wanton in the South, 
But in the North long since my nest is made. 

" O tell her, brief is life but love is long, 
And brief the sun of summer in the North, 
And brief the moon of beauty in the South. 

" O Swallow, flying from the golden woods, 
Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine, 
And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee." 

I ceased, and all the ladies, each at each, 
Like the Ithacensian suitors in old time, *°^ 

Stared with great eyes, and laugh'd with alien lips, 
And knew not what they meant ; for still my voice 
Rang false : but smiling, " Not for thee," she said, 
" O Bulbul, any rose of Gulistan. 
Shall burst her veil ; marsh-divers, rather, maid, 
Shall croak thee sister, or the meadow-crake 
Grate her harsh kindred in the grass : and this 

100-102 Ithacensian suitors: the hundred suitors of Penelope, wife 
of Ulysses, whom the hero found in possession of his palace 
upon his return to Ithaca after an absence of twenty years. 
They did not recognize him, for he was disguised as a beggar, 
but while they laughed scornfully at him, it was as though 
they laughed " with other men's jaws," for they themselves did 
not understand their mirth; and at the same time they were 
filled with forebodings. 

104 Bulbul. "The Persian name of the nightingale, whose love for 
the rose is a favorite theme with Saadi [a Persian poet of the 
thirteenth century] and his brother poets. Gulistan is Persian 
of rose-garden, and Saadi takes it as the title of his book of 
poems." — RoLFE. 

105, 106 Marsh-divers . . . or the meadow- crake. Both of these birds 
have a very harsh note. 



PART IV 63 

A mere love-poem! O for such, my friend, 

We hold them slight ; they mind us of the time 

When we made bricks in Egypt. Knaves are men, "* 

That lute and flute fantastic tenderness, 

And dress the victim to the offering up, 

And paint the gates of Hell with Paradise, 

And play the slave to gain the tyranny. 

Poor soul ! I had a maid of honor once •, 

She wept her true eyes blind for such a one, 

A rogue of canzonets and serenades. 

I loved her. Peace be with her. She is dead. 

So they blaspheme the muse ! But great is song 

Used to great ends : ourself have often tried ^^^ 

Valkyrian hymns, or into rhythm have dash'd 

The passion of the prophetess ; for song 

Is duer unto freedom, force and growth 

Of spirit, than to junketing and love. 

Love is it ? Would this same mock-love, and this 

Mock-Hymen were laid up like winter bats, 

Till all men grew to rate us at our worth, 

Not vassals to be beat, nor pretty babes 

To be dandled, no, but living wills, and sphered 

Whole in ourselves and owed to none. Enough ! ^^<* 

But now to leaven play with profit, you. 

Know you no song, the true growth of your soil, 

That gives the manners of your countrywomen ? " 

110 Made bricks in Egypt. That is, were still in slavery, like the 
Hebrews in Egypt. 

117 Canzonets: short, light songs. 

121 Valkyrian hymns: songs such as the Valkyrs might have com- 
posed. The Valkyrs were warrior-maidens who assisted Odin, 
the Norse All-father and god of war, one of their duties be- 
ing to carry to Valhalla the heroes slain in battle. 

126 Mock-Hymen. In classical mythology Hymen was the god of 
marriage. 

129 Sphered: centered. 



64 THE PRINCESS 

She spoke and turn'd her sumptuous head with eyes 
Of shining expectation fixt on mine. 
Then while I dragg'd my brains for such a song, 
Cyril, with whom the bell-mouth'd glass had wrought, 
Or master'd by the sense of sport, began 
To troll a careless, careless tavern-catch 
Of Moll and Meg, and strange experiences ^*° 

Unmeet for ladies. Florian nodded at him, 
I frowning ; Psyche flush'd and wann'd and shook ; 
The lilylike Melissa droop'd her brows ; 
"Forbear," the Princess cried; "Forbear, Sir," I; 
And heated thro' and thro' with wrath and love, 
I smote him on the breast ; he started up ; 
There rose a shriek as of a city sack'd ; 
Melissa clamor'd, " Flee the death " ; " To horse !" 
Said Ida ; " home ! to horse !" and fled, as flies 
A troop of snowy doves athwart the dusk, ^^^ 

When some one batters at the dovecote doors, 
Disorderly the women. Alone I stood 
With Florian, cursing Cyril, vext at heart, 
In the pavilion: there like parting hopes 
I heard them passing from me : hoof by hoof, 
And every hoof a knell to my desires, 
Clang'd on the bridge ; and then another shriek, 
" The Head, the Head, the Princess, O the Head!" 
For blind with rage she miss'd the plank, and roll'd 
In the river. Out I sprang from glow to gloom : ^^"^ 
There whirl'd her white robe like a blossom'd branch 
Rapt to the horrible fall : a glance I gave, 



137 With whom, etc; who was affected by the wine he had drunk, 
160 From glow to gloom: from the light of the tent into the darkness 

outside. 
162 Rapt to the horrible fall: hurried toward the falls in the river. 



PART IV 65 

No more ; but woman-vested as I was 

Plunged ; and the flood drew ; yet I caught her ; then 

Oaring one arm, and bearing in my left 

The weight of all the hopes of half the world, 

Strove to buffet to land in vain. A tree 

Was half-disrooted from his place and stoop'd 

To drench his dark locks in the gurgling wave 

Mid-channel. Right on this we drove and caught, ^'° 

And grasping down the boughs I gain'd the shore. 

There stood her maidens glimmeringly group'd 
In the hollow bank. One reaching forward drew 
My burthen from mine arms ; they cried, " She lives " : 
They bore her back into the tent : but I, 
So much a kind of shame within me wrought, 
Not yet endured to meet her opening eyes. 
Nor found my friends ; but push'd alone on foot 
(For since her horse was lost I left her mine) 
Across the woods, and less from Indian craft ^^^ 

Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at length 
The garden portals. Two great statues, Art 
And Science, Caryatids, lifted up 
A weight of emblem, and betwixt were valves 
Of open-work in which the hunter rued 
His rash intrusion, manlike, but his brows 
Had sprouted, and the branches thereupon 
Spread out at top, and grimly spiked the gates. 



183 Caryatids: female figures in stone serving as supports. 

|184 Valves: folding gates. 

'185, 186 In which the hunter, etc. On the gates Actaeon was depicted, 
undergoing the change from man to stag which was the punish- 
ment meted out to him by the goddess Diana for having chanced 
upon her when .she was bathing. 



66 THE PRINCESS 

A little space was left between the hofiio. 
Thro' which I clamber'd o'er at top with pain, ^^ 

Dropt on the sward, and up the linden walks, 
And, tost on thoughts that changed from hue to hue, 
Now poring on the glowworm, now the star, 
I paced the terrace, till the Bear had wheel'd 
Thro' a great arc his seven slow suns. 

A step 
Of lightest echo, then a loftier form 
Than female, moving thro' the uncertain gloom, 
Disturb'd me with the doubt " if this were she," 
But it was Florian. " Hist, O hist !" he said, 
" They seek us ; out so late is out of rules. ^" 

Moreover, * Seize the strangers ' is the cry. 
How came you here ?" I told him : " I," said he, 
" Last of the train, a moral leper, I, 
To whom none spake, half-sick at heart, return'd. 
Arriving all confused among the rest 
With hooded brows I crept into the hall, 
And, couch'd behind a Judith, underneath 
The head of Holofernes peep'd and saw. 
Girl after girl was call'd to trial : each 
Disclaimed all knowledge of us : last of all, ^^° 

Melissa : trust me. Sir, I pitied her. 



194 The Bear: the constellation Ursa Major. 

195 His seven slow suns: the seven stars of the Dipper. 

200 Out of rules. In the English universities the students are re- 
quired to be inside the gates by a certain hour at night. 

203 A moral leper: one who because of his baseness is shunned by all 
as though he were a leper. 

207 Judith: a Jewish heroine who, when her native town was being 
besieged by the hosts of Nebuchadnezzar, made her way to the 
hostile camp and into the tent of Holofernes, the Assyrian gen- 
eral, beheaded him, and carried his head away with her, by the 
sight of it to inspire her people to more determined resistance 
to the enemy. 



PART IV 67 

She, questioned if she knew us men, at first 

Was silent ; closer prest, denied it not : 

And then, demanded if her mother knew, 

Or Psyche, she affirm'd not, or denied : 

From whence the Royal mind, familiar with her. 

Easily gathered either guilt. She sent 

For Psyche, but she was not there ; she call'd 

For Psyche's child to cast it from the doors ; 

She sent for Blanche to accuse her face to face; ^~^ 

And I slipt out : but whither will you now ? 

And where are Psyche, Cyril ? both are fled : 

What, if together? that were not so well. 

Would rather we had never come ! I dread 

His wildness, and the chances of the dark." 

"And yet," I said, " you wrong him more than I 
That struck him : this is proper to the clown, 
Tho' smock'd, or furr'd and purpled, still the clown, 
To harm the thing that trusts him, and to shame 
That which he says he loves : for Cyril, howe'er -"** 
He deal in frolic, as to-night — the song 
Might have been worse and sinn'd in grosser lips 
Beyond all pardon — as it is, I hold 
These flashes on the surface are not he. 
He has a solid base of temperament ; 
But as the water-lily starts and slides 
Upon the level in little puffs of wind, 
Tho' anchor'd to the bottom, such is he." 

212 Us men: us to be men. 

217 Either guilt: the guilt of both. 

227 Clown: boorish fellow. 

228 Smock'd or furr'd and purpled: wearing the dress of a peasant 

or the rich robes of nobles. 



68 THE PRINCESS 

Scarce had I ceased when from a tamarisk near 
Two Proctors leapt upon us, crying, '' Names " : -^^ 
He, standing still, was clutch'd ; but I began 
To thrid the musky-circled mazes, wind 
And double in and out the boles, and race 
By all the fountains : fleet I was of foot : 
Before me shower'd the rose in flakes ; behind 
I heard the puff'd pursuer; at mine ear 
Bubbled the nightingale and heeded not, 
And secret laughter tickled all my soul. 
At last I hook'd my ankle in a vine. 
That claspt the feet of a Mnemosyne, ^°^ 

And falling on my face was caught and known. 

They haled us to the Princess where she sat 
High in the hall : above her droop'd a lamp, 
And made the single jewel on her brow 
Burn like the mystic fire on a mast-head, 
Prophet of storm : a handmaid on each side 
Bow'd toward her, combing out her long black hair 
Damp from the river ; and close behind her stood 
Eight daughters of the plough, stronger than men, 
Huge women blowzed with health, and wind, and 
rain, -«" 

239 Tamarisk: a shrub or tree having minute scalelike leaves, native to 

Southern Europe and Asia. 
242 Thrid the . . . mazes. That is, thread the narrow, winding paths 

with their borders of fragrant flowers. 
250 Mnemosyne: the goddess of memory. 
252 Haled: conducted by force. 
255 Mystic fire: the phenomenon popularly known as " St. Elmo's fire," 

taking its name from the patron saint of sailors; a flamelike 

electrical discharge sometimes seen on dark, stormy nights at some 

prominent point on a ship. 

259 Daughters of the plow: peasant women. 

260 Blowzed: coarse and ruddy-faced. 



PART IV 69 

And labor. Each was like a Druid rock ; 

Or like a spire of land that stands apart 

Cleft from the main, and wail'd about with mews. 

Then, as we came, the crowd dividing clove 
An advent to the throne : and therebeside, 
Halk-naked as if caught at once from bed 
And tumbled on the purple footcloth, lay 
The lily-shining child ; and on the left, 
Bow'd on her palms and folded up from wrong. 
Her round white shoulder shaken with her sobs, ^^® 
Melissa knelt; but Lady Blanche erect 
Stood up and spake, an affluent orator. 

" It was not thus, O Princess, in old days : 
You prized my counsel, lived upon my lips : 
I led you then to all the Castalies ; 
I fed you with the milk of every Muse; 
I loved you like this kneeler, and you me 
Your second mother: those were gracious times. 
Then came your new friend : you began to change — 
I saw it and grieved — to slacken and to cool ; -^*^ 

Till taken with her seeming openness 
You turn'd your warmer currents all to her. 
To me you froze : this was my meed for all. 



261 Druid rock. Like those at Stonehenge and other places, sup- 
posed to have been placed in position by the Druids, or ancient 
Celtic priests. 

263 Wail'd about tvifh niezi's: surrounded by screaming sea mews. 

264 Clove: cleaved. 
272 Affluent: fluent. 

275 Castalies: sources of inspiration. Castalia was a celebrated spring 
on Mount Parnassus, above the city of Delphi. Its waters, col- 
lected in a square stone basin, were sacred to the Muses and 
Apollo. 

277 This kneeler: Melissa. 



70 THE PRINCESS 

Yet I bore up in part from ancient love, 

And partly that I hoped to win you back, 

And partly conscious of my own deserts, 

And partly that you were my civil head, 

And chiefly you were born for something great, 

In which I might your fellow-worker be, 

When time should serve ; and thus a noble scheme "^° 

Grew up from seed we two long since had sown ; 

In us true growth, in her a Jonah's gourd, 

Up in one night and due to sudden sun: 

We took this palace ; but even from the first 

You stood in your own light and darken'd mine. 

What student came but that you planed her path 

To Lady Psyche, younger, not so wise, 

A foreigner, and I your countrywoman, 

I your old friend and tried, she new in all ? 

But still her lists were swell'd and mine were lean ; ^^^ 

Yet I bore up in hope she would be known : 

Then came these wolves : they knew her : tJicy endured. 

Long-closeted with her the yestermorn. 

To tell her what they were, and she to hear : 

And me none told : not less to an eye like mine, 

A lidless watcher of the public weal. 

Last night, their mask was patent, and my foot 

Was to you : but I thought again : I fear'd 

To meet a cold ' We thank you, we shall hear of it 

From Lady Psyche ' : you had gone to her, ^^"^ 

She told, perforce ; and winning easy grace, 

No doubt, for slight delay, remain'd among us 

292 Jonah's gourd sprang up in a night and withered at once. 

296 Planed: smoothed. 

310 Had gone: would have gone. 

311 She fold: she would have told. 



PART IV 71 

In our young nursery still unknown, the stem 

Less grain than touchwood, while my honest heat 

Were all miscounted as malignant haste 

To push my rival out of place and power. 

But public use required she should be known ; 

And since my oath was ta'en for public use, 

I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. 

I spoke not then at first, but watch'd them well, ^^^ 

Saw that they kept apart, no mischief done ; 

And yet this day (tho' you should hate me for it) 

I came to tell you ; found that you had gone, 

Ridden to the hills, she likewise : now, I thought, 

That surely she will speak ; if not, then I : 

Did she ? These monsters blazon'd what they were, 

According to the coarseness of their kind, 

For thus I hear; and known at last (my work) 

And full of cowardice and guilty shame — 

I grant in her some sense of shame — she flies ; ^^^ 

And I remain on whom to wreak your rage, 

I, that have lent my life to build up yours, 

I, that have wasted here health, wealth, and time, 

And talent, I — you know it — I will not boast : 

Dismiss me, and I prophesy your plan. 

Divorced from my experience, will be chaflf 

For every gust of chance, and men will say 

We did not know the real light, but chased 

The wisp that flickers where no foot can tread." 

She ceased : the Princess answer'd coldly, " Good : ^*^ 
Your oath is broken : we dismiss you : go. 



314 Grain: strong, sound wood. Touchwood: decayed wood or dried 
fungi used for tinder. 



72 THE PRINCESS 

For this lost lamb " (she pointed to the child), 
" Our mind is changed ; we take it to ourself." 

Thereat the Lady stretch'd a vulture throat, 
And shot from crooked lips a haggard smile. 
** The plan was mine. I built the nest," she said, 
" To hatch the cuckoo. Rise !" and stoop'd to updrag 
Melissa : she, half on her mother propt. 
Half-drooping from her, turn'd her face, and cast 
A liquid look on Ida, full of prayer, 350 

Which melted Florian's fancy as she hung, 
A Niobean daughter, one arm out. 
Appealing to the bolts of Heaven ; and while 
We gazed upon her came a little stir 
About the doors, and on a sudden rush'd 
Among us, out of breath, as one pursued, 
A woman-post in flying raiment. Fear 
Stared in her eyes, and chalk'd her face, and wing'd 
Her transit to the throne, whereby she fell 
Delivering seal'd dispatches which the Head ^^^ 

Took half-amazed^ and in her lion's mood 
Tore open, silent we with blind surmise 
Regarding, while she read, till over brow 
And cheek and bosom brake the wrathful bloom 
As of some fire against a stormy cloud, 



347 The cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, that the lat- 
ter may do the hatching and care for the young birds. 

352 A Niobean daughter. That is. like one of the doomed daughters 
of Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus. The mother was so proud of 
her seven beautiful daughters and a like number of handsome 
sons that she exasperated Apollo and Diana, who killed them 
all, striking them down, one by one, with arrows shot from be- 
hind a cloud which hid the wrathful god and goddess. Grief 
over the loss of her children turned Niobe into stone. 

357 Woman-post. That is, a woman who brought news. 



PART IV 73 

When the wild peasant rights himself, the rick 

Flames, and his anger reddens in the heavens ; 

For anger most it seem'd, while now her breast. 

Beaten with some great passion at her heart, 

Palpitated, her hand shook, and w^e heard "^® 

In the dead hush the papers that she held 

Rustle : at once the lost lamb at her feet 

Sent out a bitter bleating for its dam ; 

The plaintive cry jarr'd on her ire ; she crushed 

The scrolls together, made a sudden turn 

As if to speak, but, utterance failing her. 

She whirl'd them on to me, as who should say 

" Read," and I read — two letters — one her sire's : 

" Fair daughter, when we sent the Prince your way 
We knew not your ungracious laws, which learnt, ^^"^ 
We, conscious of what temper you are built. 
Came all in haste to hinder wrong, but fell 
Into his father's hand, who has this night, 
You lying close upon his territory, 
Slipt round and in the dark invested you, 
And here he keeps me hostage for his son/' 

The second was my father's running thus : 
" You have our son : touch not a hair of his head : 
Render him up unscathed : give him your hand : 
Cleave to your contract : tho' indeed we hear "^° 

You hold the woman is the better man ; 
A rampant heresy, such as if it spread 



366 The wild peasant. Between 1830 and 1840 troubles between Eng- 
glish landlords and their tenants led to the destruction by the 
latter of much valuable property belonging to the former. The 
burning of hayricks was a common offence at this time. Rights: 
avenges. 



74 THE PRINCESS 

Would make all women kick against their lords 
Thro' all the world, and which might well deserve 
That we this night should pluck your palace down ; 
And we will do it, unless you send us back 
Our son, on the instant, whole." 

So far I read ; 
And then stood up and spoke impetuously: 

" O not to pry and peer on your reserve, 
But led by golden wishes, and a hope *°^ 

The child of regal compact, did I break 
Your precinct ; not a scorner of your sex 
But venerator, zealous it should be 
All that it might be : hear me, for I bear, 
Tho' man, yet human, whatsoe'er your wrongs, 
Fro::i the flaxen curl to the gray lock a life 
Less mine than yours : my nurse would tell me of you ; 
I babbled for you, as babies for the moon. 
Vague brightness ; when a boy, you stoop'd to me 
From all high places, lived in all fair lights, *^^ 

Cam.e in long breezes rapt from inmost south 
Av'd blown to inmost north ; at eve and dawn 
With Ida, Ida, Ida, rang the woods ; 
The leader wild-swan in among the stars 
Would clang it, and lapt in wreaths of glowworm light 
The mellow breaker murmur'd Ida. Now, 
Because I would have reach'd you, had you been 
Sphered up with Cassiopeia, or the enthroned 



395 Pluck . . . domn. A Shakespearean expression. Cf. 1. 91, Part I. 
393 Kick against: revolt from. 
415 Glowworm: phosphorescent. 

418 Cassiopeia: an Ethiopian queen who after her death was placed 
in the heavens as a constellation. 



PART IV 75 

Persephone in Hades, now at lengtli, 

Those winters of abeyance all worn out, *^ 

A man I came to see you : but, indeed, 

Not in this frequence can I lend full tongue, 

noble Ida, to those thoughts that wait 
On you, their center : let me say but this, 
That many a famous man and woman, town 
And landskip, have I heard of, after seen 

The dwarfs of presage : tho' when known, there grew 

Another kind of beauty in detail 

Made them worth knowing ; but in you I found 

My boyish dream involved and dazzled down *"" 

And master'd, while that after-beauty makes 

Such head from act to act, from hour to hour. 

Within me, that except you slay me here, 

According to your bitter statute-book, 

1 cannot cease to follow you, as they say 
The seal does music; who desire you more 
Than growing boys their manhood ; dying lips. 
With many thousand matters left to do. 

The breath of life ; O more than poor men wealth. 
Than sick men health — yours, yours, not mine — but 
half ^^« 

419 Persephone, the daughter of Ceres, was seen by Pluto just after 

he had been struck by one of Cupid's darts. Filled with love 
for the beautiful maiden, he carried her away by force and made 
her his queen. The Prince means that he would have made 
his way to the Princess wherever she might have been — among 
the stars or in the nether world. 

420 Those ivinters of abeyance. That is, all the years during which 

the betrothal had been held in abeyance. 
422 Frequence: gathering; assemblage. 

426 Landskip: landscape. The old form of the word, always used by 

Tennyson. 

427 Dwarfs of presage: far from coming up to expectation. 
430 Involved: included, contained. 

436 The seal is said to be attracted by certain musical sounds. 



76 THE PRINCESS 

Without you ; with you, whole ; and of those halves 
You worthiest ; and howe'er you block and bar 
Your heart with system out from mine, I hold 
That it becomes no man to nurse despair, 
But in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms 
To follow up the worthiest till he die: 
Yet that I came not all unauthorized 
Behold your father's letter." 

On one knee 
Kneeling, I gave it, which she caught, and dash'd 
Unopen'd at her feet : a tide of fierce ^ 

Invective seem'd to wait behind her lips, 
As waits a river level with the dam 
Ready to burst and flood the world with foam : 
And so she would have spoken, but there rose 
A hubbub in the court of half the maids 
Gather'dtogether : from the illumined hall. 
Long lanes of splendor slanted o'er a press 
Of snowy shoulders, thick as herded ewes, 
And rainbow robes, and gems and gemlike eyes, 
And gold and golden heads ; they to and fro ^ 

Fluctuated, as flowers in storm, some red, some pale 
All open-mouth'd, all gazing to the light, 
Some crying there was an army in the land. 
And some that men were in the very walls, 
And some they cared not ; till a clamor grew 
As of a new-world Babel, woman-built. 



466 Babel: the name of a tower that the descendants of Noah began 
to build, the top of which was to reach to heaven, but whicli 
was never finished because Jehovah confounded the speech of 
the builders so that they could not understand one another, and 
scattered them over the face of the earth. The name of the 
tower. Babel (from the Hebrew balbel, "to confound") has 
come to be applied to any scene of noise and confusion. 



PART IV 77 

And worse-confounded: high above them stood 
The placid marble Muses, looking peace. 

Not peace she look'd, the Head : but rising up 
Robed in the long night of her deep hair, so *^^ 

To the open window moved, remaining there 
Fixt like a beacon-tower above the waves 
Of tempest, when the crimson-rolling eye 
Glares ruin, and the wild birds on the light 
Dash themselves dead. She stretch'd her arms and 

call'd 
Across the tumult, and the tumult fell. 

" What fear ye, brawlers? am not I your Head? 
On me, me, me, the storm first breaks : / dare 
All these male thunderbolts : what is it ye fear? 
Peace ! there are those to avenge us and they come : *®^ 
If not,— myself were like enough, O girls, 
To unfurl the maiden banner of our rights, 
And clad in iron burst the ranks of war, 
Or, falling, protomartyr of our cause, 
Die : yet I blame you not so much for fear ; 
Six thousand years of fear have made you that 
From which I would redeem you : but for those 
That stir this hubbub — you and you — I know 
Your faces there in the crowd— to-morrow morn 
We hold a great convention : then shall they ^^ 

That love their voices more than duty, learn 
With whom they deal, dismiss'd in shame to live 
No wiser than their mothers, household stuff, 
Live chattels, mincers of each other's fame, 

473 Crimson-rolling eye: the revolving prisms in a lighthouse. 
484 Protomartyr: first martyr. 



78 THE PRINCESS 

Full of weak poison, turnspits for the clown, 

The drunkard's football, laughing-stocks of Time, 

Whose brains are in their hands and in their heels. 

But fit to flaunt, to dress, to dance, to thrum. 

To tramp, to scream, to burnish, and to scour. 

For ever slaves at home and fools abroad." ^°® 

She, ending, waved her hands ; thereat the crowd 
Muttering, dissolved : then with a smile, that look'd 
A stroke of cruel sunshine on the cliff. 
When all the glens are drown'd in azure gloom 
Of thunder-shower, she floated to us and said : 

" You have done well and like a gentleman. 
And like a prince : you have our thanks for all : 
And you look well too in your woman's dress : 
Well have you done and like a gentleman. 
You saved our life : we owe you bitter thanks : ^'^^ 

Better have died and spilt our bones in the flood — 
Then men had said — but now — What hinders me 
To take such bloody vengeance on you both? — 
Yet since our father — Wasps in our good hive. 
You would-be quenchers of the light to be, 
Barbarians, grosser than your native bears — 
O would I had his scepter for one hour ! 
You that have dared to break our bound, and gull'd 
Our servants, WTong'd and lied and thwarted us — 
/ wed with thee ! / bound by precontract ^-* 

Your bride, your bondslave ! not tho' all the gold 

495 Turnspits: in olden days servants whose duty it was to turn the 
spit or metal rod on which meat was placed before the fire for 
roasting; menials. 

504 Azure gloom: blue or purplish shadows [often to be seen in a 
valley just before sunset]. 



PART IV 79 

That veins the world were pack'd to make your crown, 
And every spoken tongue should lord you. Sir, 
Your falsehood and yourself are hateful to us : 
I trample on your offers and on you : 
Begone : we will not look upon you more. 
Here, push them out at gates." 

In wrath she spake. 
Then those eight mighty daughters of the plough 
Bent their broad faces toward us and address'd 
Their motion : twice I sought to plead my cause, ^^^ 
But on my shoulder hung their heavy hands, 
The weight of destiny : so from her face 
They push'd us, down the steps, and thro' the court, 
And with grim laughter thrust us out at gates. 

We crossed the street and gain'd a petty mound 
Beyond it, whence we saw the lights and heard 
The voices murmuring. While I listen'd, came 
On a sudden the weird seizure and the doubt : 
I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts ; 
The Princess with her monstrous woman-guard, ^*° 
The jest and earnest working side by side, 
The cataract and the tumult and the kings 
Were shadows ; and the long fantastic night 
With all its doings had and had not been, 
And all things were and were not. 

This went by 
As strangely as it came, and on my spirits 
Settled a gentle cloud of melancholy ; 
Not long : I shook it off ; for spite of doubts 
And sudden ghostly shadowings I was one 

523 Lord you: call you lord. 

529, 530 Address'd their motion: started toward us. 



80 THE PRINCESS 

To whom the touch of all mischance but came ^^ 

As night to him that sitting on a hill 

Sees the midsummer, midnight, Norway sun 

Set into sunrise ; then we moved away. 

INTERLUDE 

Thy voice is heard thro' rolling drums, 

That beat to battle where he stands; 
Thy face across his fancy comes, 

And gives the battle to his hands: 
A moment, while the trumpets blow, 

He sees his brood about thy knee; 
The next, like fire he meets the foe, 

And strikes him dead for thine and thee. 

So Lilia sang : we thought her half-possess'd, 

She struck such warbling fury thro' the words ; *** 

And, after, feigning pique at what she call'd 

The raillery, or grotesque, or false sublime — 

Like one that wishes at a dance to change 

The music — clapt her hands and cried for war, 

Or some grand fight to kill and make an end : 

And he that next inherited the tale, 

Half turning to the broken statue, said, 

'' Sir Ralph has got your colors ; if I prove 

Your knight, and fight your battle, what for me ? " 

It chanced, her empty glove upon the tomb ^** 

Lay by her like a model of her hand. 

She took it and she flung it. '' Fight," she said, 

" And make us all we would be, great and good." 



Interlude. From here on the poem takes on a more and more serious 
tone. Strength begins to develop in the character of the Prince, 
and the Princess is at length made to reveal the latent woman- 
liness in her nature. 



PART V 81 

He knightlike in his cap instead of casque, 
A cap of Tyrol borrow'd from the hall, 
Arranged the favor, and assumed the Prince. 



Now, scarce three paces measured from the mound, 
We stumbled on a stationary voice, 
And " Stand, who goes ? " '' Two from the palace," I. 
" The second two : they wait," he said, " pass on ; 
His Highness wakes " : and one, that clash'd in arms, 
By glimmering lanes and walls of canvas led 
Threading the soldier-city, till we heard 
The drowsy folds of our great ensign shake 
From blazon'd lions o'er the imperial tent 
Whispers of war. 

Entering, the sudden light ^^ 

Dazed me half-blind : I stood and seem'd to hear, 
As in a poplar grove when a light wind wakes 
A lisping of the innumerous leaf and dies, 
Each hissing in his neighbor's ear ; and then 
A strangled titter, out of which there brake 
On all sides, clamoring etiquette to death, 
Unmeasured mirth ; while now the two old kings 
Began to wag their baldness up and down, 
The fresh young captians flash'd their glittering teeth. 



26 Favor: a term from the language of chivalry to designate the 
ribbon or other article worn by the knight in the tourney as 
sign of his lady's favor. 
Part V. 
2 Stationary voice. That is, the voice of the sentry. 
4 The second two. Cyril and Psyche had preceded them. 

13 Innumerous: innumerable. 

14 Hissing: whispering. 



82 THE PRINCESS 

The huge bush-bearded barons heaved and blew, 
And slain with laughter roll'd the gilded squire. 

At length my sire, his rough cheek wet with tears, 
Panted from weary sides, " King, you are free ! 
We did but keep you surety for our son. 
If this be he, — or a draggled mawkin, thou. 
That tends her bristled grunters in the sludge " ; 
For I was drench'd with ooze, and torn with briers. 
More crumpled than a poppy from the sheath. 
And all one rag, disprinced from head to heel. 
Then som.e one sent beneath his vaulted palm 
A whisper'd jest to some one near him, '' Look. 
He has been among his shadows." " Satan take 
The old women and their shadows !" — thus the King 
Roar'd — '' make yourself a man to fight with men. 
Go : Cyril told us all." 

As boys that slink 
From ferule and the trespass-chiding eye. 
Away we stole, and transient in a trice 
From what was left of faded woman-slough 
To sheathing splendors and the golden scale 
Of harness, issued in the sun, that now 
Leapt from the dewy shoulders of the Earth, 
And hit the Northern hills. Here Cyril met us, 
A little shy at first, but by and by 



21 Squire: the attendant of a knight. 

25 Mawkin: slattern. 

26 Sludge: mud. 

28 From the sheath: newly opened. 

37 Transient: passing. 

38 Woman-slough. That is, the women's garments in which they had 

been masquerading. Slough (pronounced: sluff) : the cast-off 
skin of a snake. 
40 Harness: armor. 



PART V 83 

We twain, with mutual pardon ask'd and given 
For stroke and song, resolder'd peace, whereon 
Followed his tale. Amazed he fled away 
Thro' the dark land, and later in the night 
Had come on Psyche weeping : *' then we fell 
Into your father's hand, and there she lies, 
But will not speak nor stir." 

He show'd a tent ^^ 

A stone-shot off : we enter'd in, and there 
Among piled arms and rough accouterments, 
Pitiful sight, wrapp'd in a soldier's cloak. 
Like some sweet sculpture draped from head to foot, 
And push'd by rude hands from its pedestal, 
All her fair length upon the ground she lay ; 
And at her head a follower of the camp, 
A charr'd and wrinkled piece of womanhood, 
Sat watching like a watcher by the dead. 

Then Florian knelt, and " Come," he whisper'd to 
her, 
" Lift up your head, sweet sister : lie not thus. 
What have you done but right ? you could not slay 
Me, nor your prince : look up : be comforted : 
Sweet is it to have done the thing one ought. 
When fallen in darker ways." And Hkewise I : 
" Be comforted : have I not lost her too, 
In whose least act abides the nameless charm 
That none has else for me ? " She heard, she moved, 
She moan'd, a folded voice ; and up she sat. 
And raised the cloak from brows as pale and smooth "^^ 
As those that mourn half-shrouded over death 

69 Folded: muffled. 



84 THE PRINCESS 

In deathless marble. " Her," she said, " my friend- 
Parted from her — betray'd her cause and mine — 
Where shall I breathe ? why kept ye not your faith ? 
O base and bad ! what comfort ? none for me ! " 
To whom remorseful Cyril, " Yet I pray 
Take comfort : live, dear lady, for your child ! " 
At which she lifted up her voice and cried. 

'* Ah me, my babe, my blossom, ah, my child, 
My one sweet child, whom I shall see no more ! 
For now will cruel Ida keep her back ; 
And either she will die from want of care, 
Or sicken with ill-usage, when they say 
The child is hers — for every little fault, 
The child is hers ; and they will beat my girl 
Remembering her mother : O my flower ! 
Or they will take her, they will make her hard. 
And she will pass me by in after-life 
With some cold reverence worse than were she dead. 
Ill mother that I was to leave her there, 
To lag behind, scared by the cry they made, 
The horror of the shame among them all : 
But I will go and sit beside the doors. 
And make a wild petition night and day, 
Until they hate to hear me like a wind 
Wailing for ever, till they open to me, 
And lay my little blossom at my feet, 
My babe, my sweet Aglaia, my one child ; 
And I will take her up and go my way. 
And satisfy my soul with kissing her : * 

Ah ! what might that man not deserve of me 
Who gave me back my child ? " " Be comforted," . 
Said Cyril, " you shall have it " ; but again 



PART V 85 

She veil'd her brows, and prone she sank, and so, 
Like tender things that being caught feign death, 
Spoke not, nor stirr'd. 

By this a murmur ran 
Thro' all the camp, and inward raced the scouts 
With rumor of Prince Arac hard at hand. 
We left her by the woman, and without 
Found the gray kings at parle : and " Look you," 

cried 
My father, " that our compact be fulfilled : 
You have spoilt this child ; she laughs at you and man : 
She wrongs herself, her sex, and me, and him : 
But red-faced war has rods of steel and fire ; 
She yields, or war." 

Then Gama turn'd to me : 
" We fear, indeed, you spent a stormy time 
With our strange girl ; and yet they say that still 
You love her. Give us, then, your mind at large : 
How say you, war or not ? " 

" Not war, if possible, 
O king," I said, " lest from the abuse of war, ^^'^ 

The desecrated shrine, the trampled year, 
The smoldering homestead, and the household flower 
Torn from the lintel — all the common wrong — 
A smoke go up thro' which I loom to her 
Three times a monster : now she lightens scorn 
At him that mars her plan, but then would hate 
(And every voice she talk'd with ratify it, 
And every face she looked on justify it) 
The general foe. More soluble is this knot 



110 At parte: in conference, 
121 Year: harvest. 
125 Lightens: flashes. 



86 THE PRINCESS 

By gentleness than war. I want her love. " 

What were I nigher this altho' we dash'd 
Your cities into shards with catapults ? 
She would not love ; — or brought her chained, a slave, 
The lifting of whose eyelash is my lord? 
Not ever would she love, but brooding turn 
The book of scorn, till all my flitting chance 
Were caught within the record of her wrongs 
And crush'd to death : and rather, Sire, than this 
I would the old God of war himself were dead, 
Forgotten, rusting on his iron hills, ^* 

Rotting on some wild shore with ribs of wreck, 
Or like an old-world mammoth bulk'd in ice, 
Not to be molten out." 

And roughly spake 
My father, " Tut, you know them not, the girls. 
Boy, when I hear you prate I almost think 
That idiot legend credible. Look you, Sir ! 
Man is the hunter ; woman is his game : 
The sleek and shining creatures of the chase, 
We hunt them for the beauty of their skins ; 
They love us for it, and we ride them down. ^^ 

Wheedling and siding with them ! Out ! for shame ! 
Boy, there's no rose that's half so dear to them 
As he that does the thing they dare not do, 
Breathing and sounding beauteous battle, comes 
With the air of the trumpet round him, and leaps in 



132 Shards: pieces of brick and pottery. Catapults: engines of war, 

used before the invention of gunpowder, for throwing stones 

and other missiles. 
142 Mammoth: an extinct hairy elephant of gigantic size, remains of 

which have been discovered in the northern parts of both 

hemispheres. 
146 Idiot legend: the "ancient legend" referred to in 1. 5, Part I. 



PART V 87 

Among the women, snares them by the score 

Flatter'd and fluster'd, wins, tho' dash'd with death 

He reddens what he kisses : thus I won 

Your mother, a good mother, a good wife. 

Worth winning; but this firebrand — gentleness ^^^ 

To such as her ! if Cyril spake her true, 

To catch a dragon in a cherry net, 

To trip a tigress with a gossamer. 

Were wisdom to it." 

" Yea, but, Sire," I cried, 
'' Wild natures need wise curbs. The soldier? No: 
What dares not Ida do that she should prize 
The soldier? I beheld her, when she rose 
The yesternight, and storming in extremes 
Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down 
Gagelike to man, and had not shunn'd the death, ^^** 
No, not the soldier's ; yet I hold her, king, 
True woman : but you clash them all in one. 
That have as many differences as we. 
The violet varies from the lily as far 
As oak from elm : one loves the soldier, one 
The silken priest of peace, one this, one that. 
And some unworthily ; their sinless faith, 
A maiden moon that sparkles on a sty. 
Glorifying clown and satyr ; whence they need 
More breadth of culture : is not Ida right ? ^^* 

They worth it ? truer to the law within ? 

162 Cherry net. In England the cherry trees are often protected 
from the birds by nets. 

170 Gagelike: like a glove cast on the ground as a challenge to com- 
bat. 

172 Clash them all in one: fail to discriminate between those who 
differ in their natures. 

179 Satyr (pronounced: sa'ter) : a fabled deity of the woods, part 
man and part goat. 



88 THE PRINCESS 

Severer in the logic of a life? 

Twice as magnetic to sweet influences 

Of earth and heaven ? and she of whom you speak, 

My mother, looks as whole as some serene 

Creation minted in the golden moods 

Of sovereign artists ; not a thought, a touch, 

But pure as lines of green that streak the white 

Of the first snowdrop's inner leaves ; I say, 

Not like the piebald miscellany, man, ^®° 

Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual mire, 

But whole and one : and take them all-in-all. 

Were we ourselves but half as good, as kind, 

As truthful, much that Ida claims as right 

Had ne'er been mooted, but as frankly theirs 

As dues of Nature. To our point : not war ; 

Lest I lose all." 

" Nay, nay, you spake but sense," 
Said Gama. *' We remember love ourself 
In our sweet youth ; we did not rate him then 
This red-hot iron to be shaped with blows. ^^ 

You talk almost like Ida : she can talk ; 
And there is something in it as you say : 
But you talk kindlier : we esteem you for it. — 
He seems a gracious and a gallant Prince, 
I would he had our daughter : for the rest, 
Our own detention, why, the causes weigh'd, 
Fatherly fears — you used us courteously — 
We would do much to gratify your Prince — 
We pardon it ; and for your ingress here 
Upon the skirt and fringe of our fair land, *^** 

You did but come as goblins in the night, 

190 Piebald: literally, having spots cf dififerent colors. 



PART V 89 

Nor in the furrow broke the ploughman's head, 

Nor burnt the grange, nor buss'd the milking-maid. 

Nor robb'd the farmer of his bowl of cream : 

But let your Prince (our royal word upon it, 

He comes back safe) ride with us to our lines, 

And speak with Arac : Arac's word is thrice 

As ours with Ida : something may be done — 

I know not what — and ours shall see us friends. 

You, Hkewise, our late guests, if so you will, "^ 

Follow us : who knows ? we four may build some plan 

Foursquare to opposition." 

Here he reach'd 
White hands of farewell to my sire, who growl'd 
An answer which, half-muffled in his beard, 
Let so much out as gave us leave to go. 

Then rode we with the old kings across the lawns 
Beneath huge trees, a thousand rings of Spring 
In every bole, a song on every spray 
Of birds that piped their Valentines, and woke 
Desire in me to infuse my tale of love -^'^ 

In the old king's ears, who promised help, and oozed 
All o'er with honey'd answer as we rode ; 
And blossom-fragrant slipt the heavy dews 
Gathered by night and peace, with each light air 
On our niail'd heads : but other thoughts than peace 
Burnt in us, when we saw the embattled squares 
And squadrons of the Prince, trampling the flowers 
With clamor : for among them rose a cry 



227 A thousand rings of Spring. As a ring is added in every year 
of growth, these trees must have been one thousand years old. 
229 Valentines: here, love-songs. 
237 The Prince: Arac. 



90 THE PRINCESS 

As if to greet the king; they made a halt; 

The horses yell'd ; they clash'd their arms ; the drum -*® 

Beat ; merrily-blowing shrilFd the martial fife ; 

And in the blast and bray of the long horn 

And serpent-throated bugle, undulated 

The banner : anon to meet us lightly pranced 

Three captains out ; nor ever had I seen 

Such thews of men: the midmost and the highest 

Was Arac : all about his motion clung 

The shadow of his sister, as the beam 

Of the East, that play'd upon them, made them glance 

Like those three stars of the airy Giant's zone, -^^ 

That glitter burnish 'd by the frosty dafk ; 

And as the fiery Sirius alters hue. 

And bickers into red and emerald, shone 

Their morions, wash'd with morning, as they came. 

And I that prated peace, when first I heard 
War-music, felt the blind wild-beast of force, 
Whose home is in the sinews of a man, 
Stir in me as to strike : then took the king 
His three broad sons ; with now a wandering hand 
And now a pointed finger, told them all : ^^* 

A common light of smiles at our disguise 



246 Such theTvs of men: men so strong. 

250 The airy Giant's zone: the three stars forming the belt of the 
constellation Orion. Orion, a giant and a mighty hunter, was 
killed by accident by the goddess Diana, and by her placed 
among the stars, where he now appears with his belt, sword, 
and club. 

252 Sirius: Dog-Star — the brightest of the stars. It changes its hue 

when near the horizon. 

253 Bickers: quivers. 

254 Morions. A morion is a kind of open helmet, without visor or 

beaver. 



PART V 91 

Broke from their lips, and, ere the windy jest 
Had labor'd down within his ample lungs, 
Tlie genial giant, Arac, roll'd himself 
Thrice in the saddle, then burst out in words : 

" Our land invaded, 'sdeath ! and he himself 
Your captive, yet my father wills not war : 
And, 'sdeath! myself, what care I, war or no? 
But then this question of your troth remains : 
And there's a downright honest meaning in her ; "'" 
She flies too high, she flies too high ! and yet 
vShe ask'd but space and fair-play for her scheme ; 
She prest and prest it on me — I myself, 
What know I of these things ? but, life and soul ! 
I thought her half-right talking of her wrongs ; 
I say she flies too high, 'sdeath ! what of that ? 
I take her for the flower of womankind. 
And so I often told her, right or wrong ; 
And, Prince, she can be sweet to those she loves, 
And, right or wrong, I care not : this is all. ^so 

I stand upon her side : she made me swear it — 
'Sdeath ! — and with solemn rites by candle-light — 
Swear by Saint something — I forget her name — 
Her that talk'd down the fifty wisest men; 
She was a princess too ; and so I swore. 
Come, this is all ; she will -not : waive your claim : 
li not, the foughten field, what else, at once 
Decides it, 'sdeath ! against my father's will." 

266 'Sdeath: God's death. An ancient oath. 

283 Sahit something. He means St. Catharine of Alexandria, who 
according to an old legend converted to Christianity fifty wise 
men whom the Emperor Maxentius sent to dispute with her. 

287 Foughten: the old ending of the past participle, en, added to 
the modern participle, fought. 



92 THE PRINCESS 

I lagg'd in answer, loth to render up 
My precontract, and loth by brainless war ^ao 

To cleave the rift of difference deeper yet ; 
Till one of those two brothers, half aside 
And fingering at the hair about his lip. 
To prick us on to combat, '' Like to like ! 
The woman's garment hid the woman's heart." 
A taunt that clench'd his purpose like a blow ! 
For fiery-short was Cyril's counter-scoff, 
And sharp I answer'd, touch'd upon the point 
Where idle boys are cowards to their shame, 
" Decide it here: why not? we are three to three." ^*^^ 

Then spake the third, " But three to three? no more? 
No more, and in our noble sister's cause? 
More, more, for honor ! every captain waits 
Hungry for honor, angry for his king. 
More, more, some fifty on a side, that each 
May breathe himself, and quick ! by overthrow 
Of these or those, the question settled die." 

" Yea," answer'd I, " for this wild wreath of air. 
This flake of rainbov/ flying on the highest 
Foam of men's deeds — this honor, if ye will. ^^° 

It needs must be for honor if at all : 
Since, what decision? if we fail, we fail, 
And if we win, we fail ; she would not keep 
Her compact." " 'Sdeath ! but we will send to her," 
Said Arac, " worthy reasons why she should 
Bide by this issue : let our missive thro', 
And you shall have her answer by the word." 

299 Cowards to their shame: cowardly in their fear of seeming afraid. 



PART V 93 

" Boys !" shriek'd the old king, but vainlier than a 
hen 
To her false daughters in the pool ; for none 
Regarded ; neither seem'd there more to say : ^^** 

Back rode we to my father's camp, and found 
He thrice had sent a herald to the gates. 
To learn if Ida yet would cede our claim, 
Or by denial flush her babbling wells 
With her own people's life: three times he went: 
The first, he blew and blew, but none appeared : 
He batter'd at the doors ; none came : the next, 
An awful voice within had warn'd him thence : 
The third, and those eight daughters of the plough 
Came sallying thro' the gates, and caught his hair, ^^^ 
And so belabor 'd him on rib and cheek 
They made him wild : not less one glance he caught 
Thro' open doors of Ida station'd there 
Unshaken, clinging to her purpose, firm 
Tho' compass'd by two armies and the noise 
Of arms ; and standing like a stately pine 
Set in a cataract on an island-crag, 
When storm is on the heights, and right and left 
Suck'd from the dark heart of the long hills roll 
The torrents, dash'd to the vale : and yet her will ^^^ 
Bred will in me to overcome it or fall. 

But when I told the king that I was pledged 
To fight in tourney for my bride, he clash'd 
His iron palms together with a cry ; 

319 False daughters: ducklings hatched by her. 

324 Flush: fill full. IV ells: springs. 

325 Life: life-blood. 



94 THE PRINCESS 

Himself would tilt it out among the lads : 

But overborne by all his bearded lords 

With reasons drawn from age and state, perforce 

He yielded, wroth and red, with fierce demur ; 

And many a bold knight started up in heat, 

And sware to combat for my claim till death ^"^ 

All on this side the palace ran the field 
Flat to the garden-wall ; and likewise here, 
Above the garden's glowing blossom-belts, 
A column'd entry shone and marble stairs, 
And great bronze valves, emboss'd with Tomyris 
And what she did to Cyrus after fight. 
But now fast barr'd : so here upon the flat 
All that long morn the lists were hammer'd up, 
And all that morn the heralds to and fro. 
With message and defiance, went and came ; ^'^^ 

Last, Ida's answer, in a royal hand, 
But shaken here and there, and rolling words 
Oration-like. I kiss'd it and I read : 

" O brother, you have known the pangs we felt, 
What heats of indignation when we heard 
Of those that iron-cramp'd their women's feet ; 
Of lands in which at the altar the poor bride 
Gives her harsh groom for bridal-gift a scourge ; 

355 Valves. See 1. 184. Part IV. Tomyris: a queen against whom 
Cyrus the Great led an expedition in 529 B. C, and who de- 
feated him. Cyrus being killed in the battle, Tomyris sought 
out his body and taking the head, dipped it into a skin filled 
with blood, bidding the tyrant for once quench his thirst. 

358 Lists: the enclosure within which the combat was to take place. 

366 Those that iron-cramp'd, etc.: the Chinese. 

368 Gives her harsh groom ... a scourge. This used to be a custom 
in Russia. 



PART V 95 

Of living hearts that crack within the fire 

Where smolder their dead despots ; and of those, — '^''^ 

Mothers, — that, all prophetic pity, fling 

Their pretty maids in the running flood, and swoops 

The vulture, beak and talon, at the heart 

Made for all noble motion : and I saw 

That equal baseness lived in sleeker times 

With smoother men ; the old leaven leaven'd all ; 

Millions of throats would bawl for civil rights. 

No woman named : therefore I set my face 

Against all men, and lived but for mine own. 

Far off from men I built a fold for them ; ^*^ 

I stored it full of rich memorial ; 

I fenced it round with gallant institutes. 

And biting laws to scare the beasts of prey, 

And prosper'd ; till a rout of saucy boys 

Brake on us at our books, and marr'd our peace, 

Mask'd like our maids, blustering I know not what 

Of insolence and love, some pretext held 

Of baby troth, invalid, since my will 

Seal'd not the bond — the striplings ! — for their sport ! — 

I tamed my leopards : shall I not tame these ? "'^^ 

Or you ? or I ? for since you think me touch'd 

In honor — what ! I would not aught of false — 

Is not our cause pure? and whereas I know 

Your prowess, Arac, and what mother's blood 

You draw from, fight ; you failing, I abide 

What end soever : fail you will not. Still, 

Take not his life : he risk'd it for my own ; 



369, 370 Living hearts, etc. In India it was once the custom to 
burn a widow with her d6ad husband's body, 

381 Rich memorial: treasures of art — pictures, statues, etc. 

382 Institutes: rules and regulations. 



96 THE PRINCESS 

His mother lives : yet whatsoe'er you do, 
Fight and fight well ; strike and strike home. O dear 
Brothers, the woman's Angel guards you, you *^^ 

The sole men to be mingled with our cause, 
The sole men we shall prize in the after-time. 
Your very armor hallowed, and your statues 
Rear'd, sung to, when, this gadfly brush'd aside, 
We plant a solid foot into the Time, 
And mold a generation strong to move 
With claim on claim from right to right, till she 
Whose name is yoked with children's know herself ; 
And Knowledge in our own land make her free, 
And, ever following those two crowned twins, ^'^^ 

Commerce and Conquest, shower the fiery grain 
Of freedom broadcast over all that orbs 
Between the Northern and the Southern morn." 

Then came a postscript dash'd across the rest : 
'' See that there be no traitors in your camp : 
We seem a nest of traitors — none to trust 
Since our arms fail'd — this Egypt-plague of men ! 
Almost our maids were better at their homes. 
Than thus man-girdled here : indeed I think 
Our chiefest comfort is the little child *-^ 

Of one unworthy mother ; which she left : 
She shall not have it back ; the child shall grow 
To prize the authentic mother of her mind. 



404 Gadfly: the annoyance now being suffered. 

405 The time: the present age. 

412, 413 O'i'er all, etc.: over all the regions that lie upon the en- 
circling surface of the earth from pole to pole [JVallace^. 

417 Our arms: Lady Blanche and Lady Psyche, her chief assistants. 

Egypt-plague. She likens the intruders to the plagues sent upon 
the Egyptians to make them release the Hebrews from bondage. 



PART V 97 

I took it for an hour in mine own bed 
This morning; there the tender orphan hands 
Felt at my heart, and seem'd to charm from thence 
The wrath I nursed against the world : farewell." 

I ceased; he said, "Stubborn, but she may sit 
Upon a king's right hand in thunder-storms. 
And breed up warriors ! See now, tho' yourself ■*^*' 
Be dazzled by the wildfire Love to sloughs 
That swallow common sense, the spindling king, 
This Gama swamp'd in lazy tolerance. 
When the man wants weight, the woman takes it up, 
And topples down the scales ; but this is fixt 
As are the roots of earth and base of all : 
Man for the field and woman for the hearth ; 
Man for the sword and for the needle she ; 
Man with the head and woman with the heart ; 
Man to command and woman to obey; **** 

All else confusion. Look you ! the gray mare 
Is ill to live with, when her whinny shrills 
From tile to scullery, and her small goodman 
Shrinks in his arm-chair while the fires of hell 
Mix with his hearth : but you — she's yet a colt — 
Take, break her; strongly groom'd and straitly curb'd 
She might not rank Avith those detestable 
That let the bantling scald at home, and brawl 
Their rights or wrongs like potherbs in the street. 
They say she's comely ; there's the fairer chance : *^* 
/ like her none the less for rating at her ! 



4 11 The gray mare. According to an old saying, "The gray mare is 
the better horse." The old king has little love for strong- 
minded, independent women. 

449 Potherbs: vegetables. 



98 THE PRINCESS 

Besides, the woman wed is not as we, 
But suffers change of frame. A lusty brace 
Of twins may weed her of her folly. Boy, 
The bearing and the training of a child 
Is w^oman's wisdom." 

Thus the hard old king : 
I took my leave, for it was nearly noon ; 
I pored upon her letter which I held. 
And on the little clause, " take not his life " ; 
I mused on that wild morning in the w^oods, 
And on the " Follow, follow, thou shalt win " ; 
I thought on all the wrathful king had said, 
And how the strange betrothrnent w^as to end : 
Then I remember'd that burnt socerer's curse 
That one should fight with shadows and should fall 
And like a flash the weird affection came : 
King, camp, and college turn'd to hollow shows; 
I seem'd to move in old memorial tilts, 
And doing battle with forgotten ghosts, 
To dream myself the shadow of a dream ; 
And ere I woke it w^as the point of noon. 
The lists were ready. Empanoplied and plumed 
We enter'd in, and waited, fifty there 
Opposed to fifty, till the trumpet blared 
At the barrier like a w^ild horn in a land 
Of echoes, and a moment, and once more 
The trumpet, and again ; at w^hich the storm 
Of galloping hoofs bare on the ridge of spears 
And riders front to front, until they closed 
In conflict with the crash of shivering points. 
And thunder. Yet it seem'd a dream, I dream'd 

478 Bare on: bore forward. 



PART V 99 

Of fighting. On his haunches rose the steed, 

And into fiery splinters leapt the lance, 

And out of stricken helmets sprang the fire. 

Part sat like rocks ; part reeFd but kept their seats ; 

Part roll'd on the earth and rose again and drew ; 

Part stumbled mixt with floundering horses. Down 

From those two bulks at Arac's side, and down 

From Arac's arm, as from a giant's flail. 

The large blows rain'd, as here and everywliere "^^^^ 

Me rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists. 

And all the plain, — ^brand, mace, and shaft, and shield — 

Shocked, like an iron-clanging anvil bang'd 

With hammers ; till I thought, can this be he 

From Gama's dwarfish loins? if this be so. 

The mother makes us most — and in my dream 

I glanced aside, and saw the palace-front 

Alive with fluttering scarfs and ladies' eyes, 

And highest, among the statues, statuelike, 

Between a cymbal'd Miriam and a Jael, ^^^ 

With Psyche's babe, was Ida watching us, 

A single band of gold about her hair, 

Like a Saint's glory up in heaven ; but she 

No saint — inexorable — no tenderness — 

Too hard, too cruel : yet she sees me fight, 

Yea, let her see me fall ! with that I drave 

Among the thickest and bore down a Prince, 

And Cyril one. Yea, let me make my dream 

488 Those tzvo bulks: the twin brothers of Arac and the Princess. 

491 Mellay: melee; a confused fight. 

500 Miriam: a Hebrew prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, who 
after the Children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea in safety 
sang a song of thanksgiving, to the accompaniment of timbrels 
played by herself and the rest of the Hebrew women. Jael: 
she who slew Sisera, leader of the Canaanite army, by driv- 
ing a nail into his forehead while he slept. 



100 THE PRINCESS 

All that I would. But that large-molded man, 

His visage all agrin as at a wake, ^^'^ 

Made at me thro' the press, and, staggering back 

With stroke on stroke the horse and horseman, came 

As comes a pillar of electric cloud, 

Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains. 

And shadowing down the champaign till it strikes 

On a wood, and takes, and breaks, and cracks, and 

splits, 
And twists the grain with such a roar that Earth 
Reels, and the herdsmen cry ; for everything 
Gave way before him : only Florian, he 
That loved me closer than his own right eye, ^-"^ 

Thrust in between; but Arac rode him down: 
And Cyril seeing it, push'd against the Prince, 
With Psyche's color round his helmet, tough, 
Strong, supple, sinew-corded, apt at arms; 
But tougher, heavier, stronger, he that smote 
And threw him : last I spurr'd ; I felt my veins 
Stretch with fierce heat ; a moment hand to hand, 
And sword to sword, and horse to horse we hung. 
Till I struck out and shouted ; the blade glanced, 
I did but shear a feather, and dream and truth ^^** 

Flow'd from me ; darkness closed me ; and I fell. 

VI 

Home they brought her warrior dead; 

She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry: 
All her maidens, watching, said, 

" She must weep or she will die." 

510 Wake: a festival which originally was held in commemoration 
of the dedication of a church lent which later degenerated into 
an all-night frolic. 



PART VI 101 

Then they praised him, soft and low, 

Call'd him worthy to be loved, 
Truest friend and noblest foe; 

Yet she neither spoke nor moved. 

Stole a maiden from her place, 

Lightly to the warrior stept, 
Took the face-cloth from the face; 

Yet she neither moved nor wept. 

Rose a nurse of ninety years, 

Set his child upon her knee — 
Like summer tempest came her tears — 

" Sweet my child, I live for thee." 

My dream had never died or lived again. 
As in some mystic middle state I lay ; 
Seeing I saw not, hearing not I heard : 
Tho', if I saw not, yet they told me all. 
So often that I speak as having seen. 

For so it seem'd, or so they said to me, 
That all things grew more tragic and more strange ; 
That when our side was vanquish'd and my cause 
For ever lost, there went up a great cry, 
" The Prince is slain." My father heard and ran ^*^ 
In on the lists, and there unlaced my casque 
And grovel 'd on my body, and after him 
Came Psyche, sorrowing for Aglaia. 

But high upon the palace Ida stood 
With Psyche's babe in arm ; there on the roofs 
Like that great dame of Lapidoth she sang. 

16 Great dame of Lapidoth: Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth; a He- 
brew prophetess, who by wise direction led the Hebrews to 
defeat an army of the Canaanites, and who, after the victory 
of her people, sang a wonderful song of triumph and thanks- 
giving. 



102 THE PRINCESS 

"Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: the seed, 

The little seed they laugh'd at in the dark, 

Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulk 

Of spanless girth, that lays on every side 20 

A thousand arms and rushes to the sun. 

"Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they came, 

The leaves wet with women's tears; they heard 

A noise of songs they would not understand; 

They mark'd it with the red cross to the fall', 

And would have strown it, and are fallen themselves. 

"Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they came, 

The woodmen with their axes: lo the tree! 

But we will make it faggots for the hearth, 

And shape it plank and beam for roof and floor, ^*^ 

And boats and bridges for the use of men. 

" Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they struck; 
With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knew 
There dwelt an iron nature in the grain; 
The glittering axe was broken in their arms. 
Their arms were shatter'd to the shoulder blade. 

" Our enemies have fallen, but this shall grow 

A night of Summer from the heat, a breadth 

Of Autumn, dropping fruits of power; and roll'd 

With music in the growing breeze of Time, ^^^ 

The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangs 

Shall move the stony bases of the world. 

" And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary 
Is violate, our laws broken : fear we not 
To break them more in their behoof, whose arms 

25 Mark'd it -mth the red cross as a sign that it was one selected to 

be felled. 
41 Fangs: roots 



PART VI 103 

Champion'd our cause and won it with a day 

Blanch'd in our annals, and perpetual feast. 

When dames and heroines of the golden year 

Shall strip a hundred hollows bare of Spring, 

To rain an April of ovation round •^" 

Their statues, borne aloft, the three ; but come, 

We will be liberal, since our rights are won. 

Let them not lie in the tents with coarse mankind, 

111 nurses; but descend, and proffer these 

The brethren of our blood and cause, that there 

Lie bruised and maim'd, the tender ministries 

Of female hands and hospitality." 

She spoke, and with the babe yet in her arms, 
Descending, burst the great bronze valves, and led 
A hundred maids in train across the park. ^'^ 

Some cowl'd, and some bare-headed, on they came, 
Their feet in flowers, her loveliest : by them went 
The enamor'd air sighing, and on their curls 
From the high tree the blossom wavering fell, 
And over them the tremulous isles of light 
Slided, they moving under shade ; but Blanche 
At distance follow 'd : so they came : anon 
Thro' open field into the lists they wound 
Timorously ; and as the leader of the herd 
That holds a stately fretwork to the sun, ^^ 

And follow'd up by a hundred airy does. 
Steps with a tender foot, light as on air, 
The lovely, lordly creature floated on 

47 Blanch'd: marked with white; to be remembered. 

48 The golden year: the golden age about to dawn. 

49 Spring. That is, the blossoms of spring. 
70 A stately fretwork of branching antlers. 



104 THE PRINCESS 

To where her wounded brethren lay ; there stay'd ; 
Knelt on one knee, — the child on one, — and prest 
Their hands, and call'd them dear deliverers, 
And happy warriors, and immortal names, 
And said, " You shall not lie in the tents but here, 
And nursed by those for whom you fought, and served 
With female hands and hospitality." ®^ 

Then, whether moved by this, or was it chance. 
She past my way. Up started from my side 
The old lion, glaring with his whelpless eye. 
Silent ; but when she saw me lying stark, 
Dishelm'd and mute, and motionlessly pale, 
Cold e'en to her, she sigh'd ; and when she saw 
The haggard father's face and reverend beard 
Of grisly twine, all dabbled with the blood 
Of his own son, shudder'd, a twitch of pain 
Tortured her mouth, and o'er her forehead past ^'^ 
A shadow, and her hue changed, and she said : 
" He saved my life ; my brother slew him for it." 
No more ; at which the king in bitter scorn 
Drew from my neck the painting and the tress. 
And held them up : she saw them, and a day 
Rose from the distance on her memory, 
When the good queen, her mother, shore the tress 
With kisses, ere the days of Lady Blanche : 



78 Here. Remember that the contest had taken place close to the pal- 
ace of the Princess. 

83 The old Hon: the old king, father of the Prince. Whelpless eye. 
That is, the eyes of a father bereft of his only child. 

88 Of grisly twine: looking like gray twine, matted and tangled as 
it was. 

94 The painting and the tress. See 1. 37, 38, Part I. 



PART VI 105 

And then once more she look'd at my pale face : 

Till understanding all the foolish work ^^^ 

Of Fancy, and the bitter close of all, 

Her iron will was broken in her mind ; 

Her noble heart was molten in her breast ; 

She bow'd, she set the child on the earth ; she laid 

A feeling finger on my brows, and presently 

*' O Sire," she said, " he lives ; he is not dead : 

O let me have him with my brethren here 

In our own palace : we will tend on him 

Like one of these ; if so, by any means. 

To lighten this great clog of thanks, that make ^^^ 

Our progress falter to the woman's goal." 

She said : but at the happy word " he lives " 
My father stoop'd, re-father'd o'er my wounds. 
So those two foes above my fallen life. 
With brow to brow like night and evening mixt 
Their dark and gray, while Psyche ever stole 
A little nearer, till the babe that by us, 
Half-lapt in glowing gauze and golden brede. 
Lay like a new-fallen meteor on the grass, 
Uncared for, spied its mother and began ^^'^ 

A blind and babbling laughter, and to dance 
Its body, and reach its fatling innocent arms 
And lazy lingering fingers. She the appeal 
Brook'd not, but clamoring out " Mine — mine — not 

yours, 
It is not yours, but mine : give me the child !" 
Ceased all on tremble: piteous was the cry: 

118 Brede: embroidery. 
124 Brook'd: endured. 
126 On tremble: atremble. 



106 THE PRINCESS 

So stood the unhappy mother open-mouth'd, 

And turn'd each face her way: wan was her cheek 

With hollow watch, her blooming mantle torn. 

Red grief and mother's hunger in her eye, ^^^ 

xA.nd down dead-heavy sank her curls, and half 

The sacred mother's bosom, panting, burst 

The laces toward her babe ; but she nor cared 

Nor knew it, clamoring on, till Ida heard, 

Look'd up, and rising slowly from me, stood 

Erect and silent, striking with her glance 

The mother, me, the child ; but he that lay 

Beside us, Cyril, batter'd as he was, 

Trail'd himself up on one knee : then he drew 

Her robe to meet his lips, and down she look'd ^*^ 

At the arm'd man sideways, pitying as it seem'd, 

Or self-involved ; but when she learnt his face, 

Remembering his ill-omen'd song, arose 

Once more thro' all her height, and o'er him grew 

Tall as a figure lengthen'd on the sand 

When the tide ebbs in sunshine, and he said: 

" O fair and strong and terrible! Lioness 
That with your long locks play the lion's mane I 
But Love and Nature, these are two more terrible 
And stronger. See, your foot is on our necks, '^'''^ 

We vanquish'd, you the victor of your will. 
What would you more ? give her the child ! remain 
Orb'd in your isolation: he is dead. 
Or all as dead : henceforth we let you be : 
Win you the hearts of women ; and beware 
Lest, where you seek the common love of these. 

142 Self -involved: absorbed in her own thoughts. Learnt: recognized. 



PART VI 107 

The common hate with the revolving wheel 

Should drag you down, and some great Nemesis 

Break from a darken'd future, crown'd with fire, 

And tread you out for ever : but howsoe'er ^^^ 

Fixt in yourself, never in your own arms 

To hold your own, deny not hers to her. 

Give her the child ! O if, I say, you keep 

One pulse that beats true woman, if you loved 

The breast that fed or arm that dandled you, 

Or own one port of sense not flint to prayer, 

Give her the child ! or if you scorn to lay it, 

Yourself, in hands so lately claspt with yours. 

Or speak to her, your dearest, her one fault 

The tenderness, not yours, that could not kill, "^ 

Give me it ; / will give it her." 

He said : 
At first her eye with slow dilation roll'd 
Dry flame, she listening ; after sank and sank 
And, into mournful twilight mellowing, dwelt 
Full on the child ; she took it : " Pretty bud ! 
Lily of the vale ! half-open'd bell of the woods ! 
Sole comfort of my dark hour, when a world 
Of traitorous friend and broken system made 
No purple in the distance, mystery. 
Pledge of a love not to be mine, farewell ! ^^^ 

These men are hard upon us as of old. 
We two must part ; and yet how fain was I 
To dream thy cause embraced in mine, to think 
I might be something to thee, when I felt 
Thy helpless warmth about my barren breast 



158 Nemesis: the goddess of retribution or vengeance. 
166 Port: portal. 



108 THE PRINCESS 

In the dead prime : but may thy mother prove 

As true to thee as false, false, false to me ! 

And, if thou needs must bear the yoke, I wish it 

Gentle as freedom " — here she kiss'd it : then — 

" All good go with thee ! take it, Sir," and so ^^^ 

Laid the soft babe in his hard-mailed hands 

Who turn'd half-round to Psyche as she sprang 

To meet it, with an eye that swum in thanks ; 

Then felt it sound and whole from head to foot, 

And hugg'd and never hugg'd it close enough, 

And in her hunger mouth'd and mumbled it. 

And hid her bosom with it ; after that 

Put on more calm and added suppliantly : 

" We two were friends : I go to mine own land 
For ever : find some other : as for me ~^^ 

I scarce am fit for your great plans : yet speak to me, 
Say one soft word and let me part forgiven." 

But Ida spoke not, rapt upon the child. 
Then Arac : " Ida — 'sdeath ! you blame the man ; 
You wrong yourselves — the woman is so hard 
Upon the woman. Come, a grace to me ! 
I am your warrior ; I and mine have fought 
Your battle : kiss her ; take her hand, she ^veeps : 
'Sdeath! I would sooner fight thrice o'er than see it." 

But Ida spoke not, gazing on the ground ; -^^ 

And reddening in the furrows of his chin. 
And moved beyond his custom, Gama said: 



186 Dead prime: dark hours preceding the dawn. 
202 Part: depart. 



PART VI 109 

" I've heard that there is iron in the blood. 
And I believe it. Not one word ? not one ? 
Whence drew you this steel temper? not from me, 
Not from your mother, now a saint with saints. 
She said you had a heart — I heard her say it — 
' Our Ida has a heart ' — just ere she died — 
* But see that some one with authority 
Be near her still ' ; and I — I sought for one — ^^^ 

All people said she had authority— 
The Lady Blanche : much profit ! Not one word ; 
No ! tho' your father sues : see how you stand 
Stiff as Lot's wife, and all the good knights maim'd, 
I trust that there is no one hurt to death, 
For your wild whim: and was it then for this, 
Was it for this we gave our palace up, 
Where we withdrew from summer heats and state, 
And had our wine and chess beneath the planes, 
And many a pleasant hour with her that's gone, -"** 
Ere you were born to vex us ? Is it kind ? 
Speak to her, I say : is this not she of whom. 
When first she came, all flush'd you said to me, 
Now had you got a friend of your own age, 
Now could you share your thought; now should men 

see 
Two women faster welded in one love 
Than pairs of wedlock ? she you walk'd with, she 
You talk'd with, whole nights long, up in the tower, 
Of sine and arc, spheroid and azimuth. 
And right ascension, Heaven knows what ; and now ^^^ 

224 Stiff as Lot's -wife. Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt. 

239 Sine: a term used in trigonometry. Arc: a portion of a curved 

line. Spheroid: a body nearly but not perfectly spherical. 
Acimuth: an arc of the horizon. 

240 Right ascension: an astronomical term. 



no THE PRINCESS 

A word, but one, one little kindly word, 

Not one to spare her : out upon you, flint ! 

You love nor her, nor me, nor any ; nay, 

You shame your mother's judgment too. Not one? 

You will not? well — no heart have you, or such 

As fancies like the vermin in a nut 

Have fretted all to dust and bitterness." 

So said the small king moved beyond his wont. 

But Ida stood nor spoke, drain'd of her force 
By many a varying influence and so long. -^"^ 

Down thro' her limbs a drooping languor wept : 
Her head a little bent; and on her mouth 
A doubtful smile dwelt like a clouded moon 
In a still water : then brake out my sire, 
Lifting his grim head from my wounds : " O you, 
Woman, whom we thought woman even now. 
And were half fool'd to let you tend our son, 
Because he might have wish'd it — but we see 
The accomplice of your madness unforgiven, 
And think that you might mix his draught with 
death, ^co 

When your skies change again : the rougher hand 
Is safer: on to the tents: take up the Prince." 
He rose, and while each ear was prick'd to attend 
A tempest, thro' the cloud that dimm'd her broke 
A genial warmth and light once more, and shone 
Thro' glittering drops on her sad friend. 

" Come hither. 
O Psyche," she cried out, " embrace me, come. 
Quick while I melt ; make reconcilement sure 
With one that cannot keep her mind an hour : 

246 Fancies: whims. 



PART VI 111 

Come to the hollow heart they slander so ! ^^^ 

Kiss and be friends, like children being chid ! 
/ seem no more: / want forgiveness too: 
I should have had to do with none but maids, 
That have no links with men. Ah false but dear. 
Dear traitor, too much loved, why? — why? — Yet see, 
Before these kings we embrace you yet once more 
With all forgiveness, all oblivion. 
And trust, not love, you less. 

And now, O Sire, 
Grant me your son, to nurse, to wait upon him, 
Like mine own brother. For my debt to him, -^^ 

This nightmare weight of gratitude, I know it ; 
Taunt me no more : yourself and yours shall have 
Free adit ; we will scatter all our maids 
Till happier times each to her proper hearth : 
What use to keep them here — now? grant my prayer. 
Help, father, brother, help ; speak to the king : 
Thaw this male nature to some touch of that 
Which kills me with myself, and drags me down 
From my fixt height to mob me up with all 
The soft and milky rabble of womankind, ^^^ 

Poor weakling even as they are.'* 

Passionate tears 
Follow'd : the king replied not : Cyril said : 
** Your brother, Lady, — Florian, — ask for him 
Of your great Head — for he is wounded too — 
That you may tend upon him with the Prince." 
" Ay, so," said Ida with a bitter smile, 
" Our laws are broken ; let him enter too." 

272 I seem- no more. That is, no more than a chidden child. 

283 Adit: access, entrance. 

298 She that sang, etc. See 1. 21, Part IV. 



112 THE PRINCESS 

Then Violet, she that sang the mournful song, 

And had a cousin tumbled on the plain, 

Petition'd too for him. " Ay, so," she said, ^°® 

*' I stagger in the stream ; I cannot keep 

My heart an eddy from the brawling hour : 

We break our laws with ease, but let it be." 

" Ay, so?" said Blanche: " Amazed am I to hear 

Your Highness; but your Highness breaks with ease 

The law your Highness did not make : 't was I. 

I had been wedded wife, I knew mankind, 

And block'd them out ; but these men came to woo 

Your Highness — verily I think to win." 

So she, and turn'd askance a wintry eye; ^^" 

But Ida, with a voice that, like a bell 
Toll'd by an earthquake in a trembling tower, 
Rang ruin, answer'd full of grief and scorn : 

" Fling our doors wide ! all, all, not one, but all, 
Not only he, but by my mother's soul, 
Whatever man lies wounded, friend or foe. 
Shall enter, if he will ! Let our girls flit. 
Till the storm die ! but had you stood by us, 
The roar that breaks the Pharos from his base 
Had left us rock. She fain would sting us too, ^-^ 

But shall not. Pass, and mingle with your likes. 
We brook no further insult, but are gone." 

She turn'd ; the very nape of her white neck 
Was rosed with indignation : but the Prince 
Her brother came ; the king her father charm'd 

319 The Pharos: a lighthouse on an island in the harbor of. Alex- 
andria: one of the seven wonders of the world. 



PART VI 113 

Her wounded soul with words : nor did mine own 
Refuse her proffer, lastly gave his hand. 

Then us they lifted up, dead weights, and bare 
Straight to the doors : to them the doors gave way 
Groaning, and in the Vestal entry shriek'd ^^^ 

The virgin marble under iron heels : : 
And on they moved and gain'd the hall, and there 
Rested : but great the crush was, and each base. 
To left and right, of those tall columns drown'd 
In silken fluctuation and the swarm 
Of female whisperers : at the further end 
Was Ida by the throne, the two great cats 
Close by her, like supporters on a shield, 
Bow-back'd with fear : but in the center stood 
The common men with rolling eyes ; amazed ^*® 

They glared upon the women, and aghast 
The women stared at these, all silent, save 
When armor clash'd or jingled, while the day, 
Descending, struck athwart the hall, and shot 
A flying splendor out of brass and steel, 
That o'er the statues leapt from head to head, 
Now fired an angry Pallas on the helm. 
Now set a wrathful Dian's moon on flame ; 
And now and then an echo started up. 
And shuddering fled from room to room, and died ^^® 
Of fright in far apartments. 

Then the voice 
Of Ida sounded, issuing ordinance : 
And me they bore up the broad stairs, and thro' 

338 Supporters: in heraldry, representations of living creatures ac- 
companying an escutcheon, either holding it up or standing be- 
side it. 

352 Ordinance: directions; commands. 



114 THE PRINCESS 

The long-laid galleries past a hundred doors 
To one deep chamber shut from sound, and due 
To languid limbs and sickness ; left me in it ; 
And others otherwhere they laid ; and all 
That afternoon a sound arose of hoof 
And chariot, many a maiden passing home 
Till happier times ; but some were left of those 
Held sagest, and the great lords out and in. 
From those two hosts that lav beside the wall, 
Walk'd at their will, and everything was changed. 



VII 

Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea; 

The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape, 
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape; 

But O too fond, v/hen have I answer'd thee? 

Ask me no more. 

Ask me no more: what answer should I give? 
I love not hollow cheek or faded eye: 
Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die! 

Ask me no more, lest T should bid thee live; 

Ask me no more. 

Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are seal'd: 
I strove against the stream and all in vain: 
Let the great river take me to the main: 

No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield; 

Ask me no more. 



So was their sanctuary violated, 

So their fair college turn'd to hospital ; 

At first with all confusion : by and by 

255 Due: devoted. 



PART VII 115 

Sweet order lived again with other laws : 

A kindlier influence reign'd ; and everywhere 

Low voices with the ministering hand 

Hung round the sick : the maidens came, they talk'd, 

They sang, they read : till she not fair began 

To gather light, and she that was became 

Her former beauty treble ; and to and fro ^^ 

With books, with flowers, and with angel offices, 

Like creatures native unto gracious act, 

And in their own clear element, they moved. 

But sadness on the soul of Ida fell, 
And hatred of her weakness, blent with shame. 
Old studies fail'd ; seldom she spoke ; but oft 
Clomb to the roofs, and gazed alone for hours 
On that disastrous leaguer, swarms of men 
Darkening her female field : void was her use, 
And she as one that clim.bs a peak to gaze -** 

O'er land and main, and sees a great black cloud 
Drag inward from the deeps, a wall of night, 
Blot out the slope of sea from verge to shore, 
And suck the blinding splendor from the sand, 
And quenching lake by lake and tarn by tarn 
Expunge the world : so fared she gazing there ; 
So blacken'd all her world in secret, blank 
And waste it seem'd and vain ; till down she came. 
And found fair peace once more among the sick. 



17 Clomh: climbed, wliich latter form the poet uses elsewhere. 

18 Leaguer: camp. 

19 Void 7vas her use: her occupation was done away with. 
23 Verge: horizon. 

25 Tarn: a mountain lake or pool. 

28 Expunge: obliterate; blot out. 

27 Her world: her dreams for women. 



116 THE PRINCESS 

And twilight dawn'd ; and morn by morn the lark ^° 
Shot up and shrill'd in flickering gyres, but I 
Lay silent in the muffled cage of life : 
And twilight gloom'd; and broader-grown the bowers 
Drew the great night into themselves, and Heaven, 
Star after star, arose and fell ; but I, 
Deeper than those weird doubts could reach me, lay 
Quite sunder'd from the moving Universe, 
Nor knew what eye was on me, nor the hand 
That nursed me, more than infants in their sleep. 

But Psyche tended Florian : with her oft *** 

Melissa came ; for Blanche had gone, but left 
Her child among us, willing she should keep 
Court-favor : here and there the small bright head, 
A light of healing, glanced about the couch, 
Or thro' the parted silks the tender face 
Peep'd, shining in upon the wounded man 
With blush and smile, a medicine in themselves 
To wile the length from languorous hours, and draw 
The sting from pain; nor seem'd it strange that soon 
He rose up whole, and those fair charities ^^ 

Join'd at her side ; nor stranger seem'd that hearts 
So gentle, so employ'd, should close in love. 
Than when two dewdrops on the petal shake 
To the same sweet air and tremble deeper down, 
And slip at once all-fragrant into one. 

Less prosperously the second suit obtain'd 
At first with Psyche. Not tho.' Blanche had sworn 
That after that dark night among the fields 

31 Gyres: circles. 

50 Charities: her care of the wounded men. 

56 Obtain'd: prevailed. 



PART VII 117 

She needs must wed him for her own good name ; 
Not tho' he built upon the babe restored; *^*^ 

Nor tho' she liked him, yielded she, but fear'd 
To incense the Head once more ; till on a day 
When Cyril pleaded, Ida came behind 
Seen but of Psyche : on her foot she hung 
A moment, and she heard, at which her face 
A little flush 'd, and she past on ; but each 
Assumed from thence a half-consent involved 
In stillness, plighted troth, and were at peace. 

Nor only these: Love in the sacred halls 
Held carnival at will, and flying struck "^^ 

With showers of random sweet on maid and man, 
Nor did her father cease to press my claim, 
Nor did mine own now reconciled ; nor yet 
Did those twin brothers, risen again and whole ; 
Nor Arac, satiate with his victory. 

But I lay still, and with me oft she sat : 
Then came a change ; for sometimes I would catch 
Her hand in wild delirium, gripe it hard, 
And fling it like a viper off, and shriek, 
" You are not Ida " ; clasp it once again, *<* 

And call her Ida, tho' I knew her not. 
And call her sweet, as if in irony, 
And call her hard and cold, which seem'd a truth ; 
And still she fear'd that I should lose my mind. 
And often she believed that I should die : 
Till out of long frustration of her care. 
And pensive tendance in the all-weary noons, 

60 Built upon: based his suit upon. 

67, 68 Involved in stillness: implied by silence. 



118 THE PRINCESS 

And watches in the dead, the dark, when clocks 

Throbb'd thunder thro' the palace floors, or call'd 

On flying Time from all their silver tongues — ^^ 

And out of memories of her kindlier days, 

And sidelong glances at my father's grief, 

And at the happy lovers heart in heart — 

And out of hauntings of my spoken love. 

And lonely listenings to my mutter'd dream. 

And often feeling of the helpless hands. 

And wordless broodings on the wasted cheek — 

From all a closer interest flourish'd up, 

Tenderness touch by touch, and last, to these, 

Love, like an Alpine harebell hung with tears ^^^ 

By some cold morning glacier ; frail at first 

And feeble, all unconscious of itself, 

But such as gathered color day by day. 

Last I woke sane, but well-nigh close to death 
For weakness: it was evening: silent light 
Slept on the painted walls, wherein were wrought 
Two grand designs ; for on one side arose 
The women up in wild revolt, and storm'd 
At the Oppian law. Titanic shapes, they cramm'd 
The forum, and half-crush'd among the rest ^^^' 

88 Dead: dead of night. 

109 TJie Oppian lazv: a law passed in Rome when Hannibal was 

threatening the citj- in 215 B. C. It prohibited women from 
wearing rich garments and forbade their adorning themselves 
with more than a certain amount of jewelry. When war had 
ceased the women demanded the repeal of the law, but they 
were supported by only one of the two consuls. They then 
resorted to riotous demonstrations, in which they persisted 
till the repeal of the law in 195 B. C. Titanic: gigantic, super- 
human. 

110 Forum: a marketplace or public place in Rome where cases were 

judicially tried and orations delivered to the people. 



PART VII 119 

A dwarf-like Cato cower'd. On the other side 
Hortensia spoke against the tax ; behind, 
A train of dames : by axe and eagle sat, 
With all their foreheads drawn in Roman scowls, 
And half the wolf's-milk curdled in their veins, 
The fierce triumvirs ; and before them paused 
Hortensia, pleading : angry was her face. 

I saw the forms : I knew not where I was : 
They did but look like hollow shows ; nor more 
Sweet Ida : palm to palm she sat : the dew ^^^ 

Dwelt in her eyes, and softer all her shape 
And rounder seem'd : I moved ; I sigh'd : a touch 
Came round my wrist, and tears upon my hand: 
Then all for languor and self-pity ran 
Mine down my face, and with what life I had, 
And like a flower that cannot all unfold, , 
So drenched it is with tempest, to the sun, 
Yet, as it may, turns toward him, I on her 
Fixt my faint eyes, and utter'd whisperingly : 

"If you be, what I think you, some sweet dream, ^^^ 
I would but ask you to fulfil yourself ; 
But if you be that Ida whom I knew, 
I ask you nothing: only, if a dream, 
Sweet dream, be perfect. I shall die to-night. 
Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere I die." 

111 Cato: a Roman statesman who was made consul in 195 B. C. 

He opposed the repeal of the law mentioned above. 

112 Hortensia: a Roman matron who spoke so eloquently against a 

certain tax levied upon, the women of Rome that it was removed. 

113 Axe and eagle. The axe was the emblem of the civil and the eagle 

that of the military authority of Rome. 
115 Wolf's-milk. An allusion to tlie tradition that Romulus and 
Remus, the mythical founders of Rome, were suckled by a wolf. 



130 THE PRINCESS 

I could no more, but lay like one in trance, 
That hears his burial talk'd of by his friends, 
And cannot speak, nor move, nor make one sign, 
But lies and dreads his doom. She turn'd ; she paused ; 
She stoop'd ; and out of languor leapt a cry ; ^*^ 

Leapt fiery Passion from the brinks of death ; 
And I believed that in the living world 
My spirit closed with Ida's at the lips ; 
Till back I fell, and from mine arms she rose 
Glowing all over noble shame; and all 
Her falser self slipt from her like a robe. 
And left her woman, lovelier in her mood 
Than in her mold that other, when she came 
From barren deeps to conquer all with love. 
And down the streaming crystal dropt; and she ^^® 
Far-fleeted by the purple island-sides, 
Naked, a double light in air and wave, 
To meet her Graces, where they deck'd her out 
For worship without end ; nor end of mine, 
Statehest, for thee ! but mute she glided forth. 
Nor glanced behind her, and I sank and slept, 
Fiird thro' and thro' with love, a happy sleep. 

Deep in the night I woke : she, near me, held 
A volume of the Poets of her land : 
There to herself, all in low tones, she read : ^^^ 

"Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white; 
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; 
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font: 
The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me. 



148 That other: Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who -"as born of the 

sea-foam. 
151 Far-Heeted: floated far. 






PART VII 121 

" Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, 
And like a ghost she glimmers on to mc. 

" Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars, 
And all thy heart lies open unto me, 

" Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves 
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. ^'^^ 

" Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, 
And slips into the bosom of the lake: 
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip 
Into my bosom and be lost in me." 

I heard her turn the page; she found a small 
Sweet Idyl, and once more, as low, she read: 

" Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height 

What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang), 

In height and cold, the splendor of the hills? 

But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease ^^^ 

To glide a sunbeam by the blasted pine, 

To sit a star upon the sparkling spire; 

And come, for Love is of the valley, come. 

For Love is of the valley, come thou down 

And find him; by the happy threshold, he, 

Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize. 

Or red with spirted purple of the vats. 

Of foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk 

With Death and Morning on the Silver Horns, 

Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine, i^''* 

Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice, 

167 Dana'c to the stars. That is, open to their influence. Danae, 
daughter of the King of Argos, was loved by Zeus, who, when 
the maiden's father shut her up in a dungeon, made his way 
into the prison in the form of a shower of gold. 

189 With Death and Morning on the Silver Horns. " Morning walks 
on the mountains here . . . and Death is her companion be- 
cause life has no home on those ' Alpine summits cold,' or 
must face Death in attempting to scale them." — Rolfe. 

191 Firths of ice: glaciers. 



122 THE PRINCESS 

That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls 

To roll the torrent out of dusky doors: 

But follow; let the torrent dance thee down 

To find him in the valley; let the wild 

Lean-headed eagles yelp alone, and leave 

The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill 

Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke, 

That like a broken purpose waste in air: 

So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales 

Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth 

Arise to thee; the children call, and I 

Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound, 

Sweeter thy A-oice, but every sound is sweet; 

Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, 

The moan of doves in immemorial elms, 

And murmuring of innumerable bees."* 

So she low-toned ; while with shut eyes I lav 
Listening, then look'd. Pale was the perfect face ; 
The bosom with long sighs labor'd ; and meek 
Seem'd the full lips, and mild the luminous eyes. 
And the voice trembled and the hand. She said 
Brokenly, that she knew it, she had fail'd 
In sweet humility ; had fail'd in all ; 
That all her labor was but as a block 
Left in the quarry; but she still were loth. 
She still were loth to yield herself to one 
That wholly scorn'd to help their equal rights 
Against the sons of men and barbarous laws. 
She pray'd me not to judge their cause from her ■ 
That wrong'd it, sought far less for truth than power 
In knowledge : something wild within her breast, 
A greater than all knowledge, beat her down. 



201 Asure pillars of the hearth:, columns of smoke rising from tl>e 

cottages. 
216 Were: would be. 



PART VII 123 

And she had nursed me there from week to week: 

Much had she learnt in Httle time. In part 

It was ill counsel had misled the girl 

To vex true hearts : yet was she but a girl — 

" Ah fool, and made myself a queen of farce ! 

When comes another such? never, I think, 

Till the sun drop, dead, from the signs." 

Her voice -^° 
Choked, and her forehead sank upon her hands, 
And her great heart thro' all the faultful past 
Went sorrowing in a pause I dared not break ; 
Till notice of a change in the dark world 
Was lispt about the acacias, and a bird. 
That early woke to feed her little ones. 
Sent from a dewy breast a cry for light : 
She moved, and at her feet the volume fell. 

" Blame not thyself too much," I said, *' nor blame 
Too much the sons of men and barbarous laws ; -^^ 
These were the rough ways of the world till now. 
Henceforth thou hast a helper, me, that know 
The woman's cause is man's ; they rise or sink 
Together, dwarf 'd or godlike, bond or free : 
For she that out of Lethe scales with man 
The shining steps of Nature, shares with man 
His nights, his days, moves with him to one goal, 
Stays all the fair young planet in her hands — 
If she be small, slight-natured, miserable. 
How shall men grow ? but work no more alone ! '^*^ 



230 Signs. That is, signs of the Zodiac. 
234 A change. That is, the coming of the dawn. 

245 Lethe: the river of oblivion, contact with the waters of which 
caused forgetfulness of one's previous existence. 



124 THE PRINCESS 

Our place is much : as far as in us lies 

We two will serve them both in aiding her — 

Will clear away the parasitic forms 

That seem to keep her up but drag her down — 

\\^ill leave her space to burgeon out of all 

Within her — let her make herself her own 

To give or keep, to live and learn and be 

All that not harms distinctive womanhood. 

For woman is not undevelopt man, 

But diverse : could we make her as the man, -^^ 

Sweet Love were slain : his dearest bond is this, 

Not like to like, but like in difference. 

Yet in the long years liker must they grow ; 

The man be more of woman, she of man ; 

He gain in sweetness and in moral height. 

Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world : 

She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, 

Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind ; 

Till at the last she set herself to man. 

Like perfect music unto noble words; ^^^ 

And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time, 

Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers, 

Dispensing harvest, sowing the to-be. 

Self-reverent each and reverencing each. 

Distinct in individualities, 

But like each other even as those who love. 

Then comes the statelier Eden back to men ; 

Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm ; 

Then springs the crowning race of humankind. 

May these things be !" 



251 Our place is much: our position in life will help much. 
255 Burgeon: to put forth buds. 
261 His: Love's. 



PART VII 125 

Sighing she spoke : " I fear ^so 
They will not." 

" Dear, but let us type them now 
In our own lives, and this proud watchword rest 
Of equal ; seeing either sex alone 
Is half itself, and in true marriage lies 
Nor equal, nor unequal: each fulfills 
Defect in each, and always thought in thought, 
Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow, 
The single pure and perfect animal, 
The two-ceird heart, beating, with one full stroke. 
Life." 

And again sighing she spoke : " A dream -^^ 
That once was mine ! what woman taught you this ? " 

" Alone," I said, " from earlier than I know, 
Immersed in rich foreshadowings of the world, 
I loved the woman : he, that doth not, lives 
A drowning life, besotted in sweet self, 
Or pines in sad experience worse than death, 
Or keeps his wing'd affections dipt with crime : 
Yet was there one thro' whom I loved her, one 
Not learned, save in gracious household ways, 
Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants, ^°^ 

No angel, but a dearer being, all dipt 
In angel instincts, breathing Paradise, 
Interpreter between the Gods and men. 
Who look'd all native to her place, and yet 
On tiptoe seem'd to touch upon a sphere 
Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce 
Sway'd to her from their orbits as they moved, 
And girdled her with music. Happy he 

281 Type them: exemplify. 



126 THE PRINCESS 

With such a mother ! faith in womankind 

Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high "^° 

Comes easy to him, and tho' he trip and fall 

lie shall not blind his soul with clay." 

" But I," 
Said Ida, tremulously, " so all unlike — 
It seems you love to cheat yourself with words : 
This mother is your model. I have heard 
Of your strange doubts : they well might be ; I seem 
A mockery to my own self. Never, Prince ; 
You cannot love me." 

" Nay, but thee." I said, 
'* From yearlong poring on thy pictured eyes. 
Ere seen I loved, and loved thee seen, and saw ^-^ 
Thee woman thro' the crust of iron moods 
That mask'd thee from men's reverence up, and forced 
Sweet love on pranks of saucy boyhood : now. 
Given back to life, to life indeed, thro' thee, 
Indeed I love : the new day comes, the light 
Dearer for night, as dearer thou for faults 
Lived over : lift thine eyes ; my doubts are dead, 
My haunting sense of hollow shows : the change, 
This truthful change in thee has kill'd it. Dear, 
Look up, and let thy nature strike on mine, "^" 

Like yonder morning on the blind half-world : 
Approach and fear not ; breathe upon my brows ; 
In that fine air I tremble, all the past 
Melts mist-like into this bright hour, and this 
Is morn to more, and all the rich to-come 
Reels, as the golden Autumn woodland reels 
Athwart the smoke of burning weeds. Forgive me, 
I waste my heart in signs : let be. My bride, 
My wife, my life! O we will walk this world, 



PART VII 127 

Yoked in all exercise of noble end, ^*^ 

And so thro' those dark gates across the wild 
That no man knows. Indeed I love thee : come, 
Yield thyself up: my hopes and thine are one: 
Accomplish thou my manhood and thyself; 
Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me." 

CONCLUSION 

So closed our tale, of which I give you all 

The random scheme as wildly as it rose. 

The words are mostly mine : for when we ceased 

There came a minute's pause, and Walter said, 

" I wish she had not yielded !" then to me, 

" What if you drest it up poetically !" 

So pray'd the men, the women ; I gave assent : 

Yet how to bind the scatter'd scheme of seven 

Together in one sheaf ? What style could suit ? 

The men required that I should give throughout ** 

The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque. 

With which we banter'd little Lilia first ; 

The women — and perhaps they felt their power. 

For something in the ballads which they sang, 

Or in their silent influence as they sat. 

Had ever seem'd to wrestle with burlesque, 

And drove us, last, to quite a solemn close — 

They hated banter, wish'd for something real, 

A gallant fight, a noble princess — why 

Not make her true-heroic — true-sublime? ~^ 

Or all, they said, as earnest as the close? 

Which yet with such a framework scarce could be. 

22 Such a fuinczuork. That is, with the strange mixture of inci- 
dents and ideas of which it was composed. 



128 THE PRINCESS 

Then rose a little feud betwixt the two, 

Betwixt the mockers and the realists ; 

And I, betwixt them both, to please them both, 

And yet to give the story as it rose, 

I moved as in a strange diagonal, 

And maybe neither pleased myself nor them 

But LiHa pleased me, for she took no part 
In our dispute : the sequel of the tale ^ 

Had touch'd her ; and she sat, she pluck'd the grass. 
She flung it from her, thinking : last, she fixt 
A showery glance upon her aunt, and said, 
" You — tell us what we are " — who might have told, 
For she was cramm'd with theories out of books, 
But that there rose a shout : the gates were closed 
At sunset, and the crowd were swarming now, 
To take their leave, about the garden rails. 

So I and some went out to these : we climb'd 
The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw * 

The happy valleys, half in light, and half 
Far-shadowing from the west, a land of peace ; 
Gray halls alone among their massive groves ; 
Trim hamlets ; here and there a rustic tower 
Half-lost in belts of hop and breadths of wheat ; , 
The shimmering glimpses of a stream ; the seas ; 
A red sail, or a white ; and far beyond, 
Imagined more than seen, the skirts of France. 

" Look there, a garden !" said my college friend, 
The Tory member's elder son, " and there ! ^ 

49 A garden. He refers to the English country as a whole. 

50 And there. Referring to France. 



CONCLUSION 129 

God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off, 

And keeps our Britain, whole within herself, 

A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled — 

Some sense of duty, something of a faith, 

Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made, 

Some patient force to change them when we will, 

Some civic manhood firm against the crowd — 

But yonder, whiff ! there comes a sudden heat. 

The gravest citizen seems to lose his head, 

The king is scared, the soldier will not fight, ®° 

The little boys begin to shoot and stab, 

A kingdom topples over with a shriek 

Like an old woman, and down rolls the world 

In mock heroics stranger than our own ; 

Revolts, republics, revolutions, most 

No graver than a schoolboys' barring out ; 

Too comic for the solemn things they are, 

Too solemn for the comic touches in them, 

Like our wild Princess with as wise a dream 

As some of theirs — ^God bless the narrow seas ! ^° 

I wish they were a whole Atlantic broad." 

" Have patience," I replied, " ourselves are full 
Of social wrong; and maybe wildest dreams 
Are but the needful preludes of the truth : 
For me, the genial day, the happy crowd, 
The sport half-science, fill me with a faith, 
This fine old world of ours is but a child 
Yet in the go-cart. Patience ! Give it time 
To learn its limbs : there is a hand that guides." 

51 The narrow sea: the Straits of Dover. 
58 Yonder: in France. 

66 A schoolboys' barring out. That is, a schoolboys' barring out, in 
sport, of a master from his classroom. 



130 THE PRINCESS 

In such discourse we gain'd the garden rails. 
And there we saw Sir Walter where he stood, 
Before a tower of crimson holly-oaks, 
Among six boys, head under head, and look'd 
No little lily-handed baronet he, 
A great broad-shoulder'd genial Englishman, 
A lord of fat prize-oxen and of sheep, 
A raiser of huge melons and of pine, 
A patron of some thirty charities, 
A pamphleteer on guano and on grain, 
A quarter-sessions chairman, abler none ; 
Fair-hair'd and redder than a windy morn ; 
Now shaking hands with him, now him, of those 
That stood the nearest — now address'd to speech — 
Who spoke few words and pithy, such as closed 
Welcome, farewell, and welcome for the year 
To follow : a shout rose again, and made 
The long line of the approaching rookery swerve 
From the elms, and shook the branches of the deer 
From slope to slope thro' distant ferns, and rang 
Beyond the bourn of sunset ; O, a shout 
More joyful than the city-roar that hails 
Premier or king ! Why should not these great Sirs 
Give up their parks some dozen times a year 
To let the people breathe ? So thrice they cried, 
I likewise, and in groups they stream'd away. 



83 Head under head: each one a head shorter than the one next him. 

87 Pine: pineapples. 

90 Quarter-sessions : criminal court held quarterly. 

94 Closed: included. 

%1 Rookery: flock of rooks. 

100 Bourn: boundary. 



CONCLUSION 131 

But we went back to the Abbey, and sat on, 
So much the gathering darkness charm'd : we sat 
But spoke not, rapt in nameless reverie, 
Perchance upon the future man : the walls 
Blacken'd about us, bats wheel'd, and owls whoop'd, ^^® 
And gradually the powers of the night. 
That range above the region of the wind. 
Deepening the courts of twilight broke them up 
Thro' all the silent spaces of the worlds. 
Beyond all thought into the Heaven of Heavens. 

Last little Lilia, rising quietly. 
Disrobed the glimmering statue of Sir Ralph 
From those rich silks, and home well-pleased we went. 



STUDY QUESTIONS 

The following questions and their application to "The 
Princess "are an attempt to solve the problem of providing 
work for the student who is making preparation of a les- 
son in literature. It is a method that has been in suc- 
cessful use in the writer's classes for a number of years, 
and it is believed that it has the following advantages 
over other methods which employ outlines or independent 
questions: It is more flexible, since it gives any teacher 
opportunity to vary the work easily by asking pupils 
to prepare the lesson only on such questions as may 
seem to be of more interest or value for the class in 
hand. The material provided is abundant for such vari- 
ation of the work with different classes. Further, it has 
the effect of organizing the pupil's thinking on the sub- 
ject, because it asks him to attack again and again the 
important problems of the classic he is studying. Each 
time he answers a certain question he is gathering ma- 
terial for a final generalization. This is the more impor- 
tant, because the teaching of literature is at all times in 
danger of becoming loose and inconclusive. 

The method of use of the questions is briefly as fol- 
lows: The thirty-one general questions are to be an- 
swered over and over again as they are applied to par- 
ticular lines of the poem. For instance, the numbers 
10-24: 13, 24 indicate that for lines ten to twenty-four the 
pupil will answer questions thirteen and twenty-four. 
The numbers preceding the colon are always the line 
numbers of the poem, those following the colon the num- 
bers of the questions that are to be answered for those 
lines. 

The long string of numbers which this method pre- 
sents may look forbidding to the teacher who has not tried 
it, but, in spite of the appearance of coldness that they 
give, the work will be found very much alive. A method 

132 



STUDY QUESTIONS 133 

that makes pupils think and establish right conclusions 
of their own in place of accepting the conclusions of 
others, will create interest ultimately, even though at first 
glance it may seem mechanical. 

GENERAL QUESTIONS ON "THE PRINCESS" 
(Copyright, 1905, by Lewis Worthington Smith.) 

1 What phase of the author's feeling for life or atti- 
tude toward it do you find here? 

2 What suggestion of the author's understanding of 
the relation between man and woman do you find here? 

3 What method of description does the author employ 
here? 

4 Do you find here any lines of commonplace or any 
of imaginative or emotional heightening? Any lines 
worth remembering? 

5 What is the connection in thought and feeling be- 
tween the song and the part in which it is included? 
What in it is particularly effective? 

6 What is the meaning here? 

7 Read the notes and be prepared to comment on these 
lines. 

8 What do you know of any of the characters here? 
Does character develop, or do you merely know more 
about the persons of the story? Is the showing of char- 
acter consistent or not? 

9 What do you find here of Tennyson's feeling for 
womanhood? 

10 Is there anything incredible in the situation here? 
How made plausible? 

11 How is character shown here? 

12 What preparation here for the climax or catastrophe 
or for the development of the struggle of the contending 
forces? 

13 What concrete picture does the author wish you 
to get here? For what purpose does he wish you to vis- 
ualize this? 

14 What expectation regarding the outcome does the 
author raise here, and why? Is there anything dramat- 
ic in the situation? 



134 THE PRINCESS 

15 Explain historical or other allusions. 

16 What is there striking in diction, felicitous or oth- 
erwise, here? 

17 What metrical peculiarity, felicity or variation do 
you notice here? How justified or accounted for? 

18 What mood is shown here, and how is it consistent 
with character? 

19 Be able to give meanings of all words here. 

20 How is this harmonious and in keeping with the 
atmosphere of the poem, or inharmonious and not in 
keeping? 

21 How does this emphasize the general tone of the 
poem? 

22 Comment on the figures here. 

23 What is the nature of the sentiments appealed to 
here? 

24 Do you notice anything in the tone-color deserving 
comment here? 

25 What words in these lines are not of Anglo-Saxon 
origin? Of these, how many are derivatives of Latin 
words with which you are familiar? 

26 What is the meter here, and how is it fitting? 

27 What does Tennyson understand as the sphere of 
woman? 

28 What is there in any way striking in the way in 
which this is said? 

29 Make an outline of the story so far. 

30 Do you find any separate episodes or digressions 
so far? If so, what part do they play in relation to the 
whole? 

31 Has the story narrative movement and sweep or not? 
If not, what in the method of telling or in the things 
presented keeps it from having such sweep? 

APPLICATION OF PRECEDING QUESTIONS 

Prologue, 10-24:13, 24. 14-17:6. 20-21:6. 25-26:15 
40-41:13. 49:17. 53:7. 55-88:13. 56-57:7, 6. 69-70: 
16. 91-94:7. 100-105:18. 107-110:20. 110-117:18. 118- 
216:20. 127-138:8. 137-138:13,18. 139-148:24,20. 148- 
151:13, 18. 152-154:9. 161:7. 163:6. 164-165:22. 166- 



STUDY QUESTIONS 135 

168:18. 179-187:6. 190-194:18, 20. 196-201: 19. 210- 
211:6. 212-216:6, 18. 220-235:20. 238:22. 

Parti. 1-4:8. 3-4:6. 7-13:6. 12-18:7. 19-28:19. 20-30: 
8. 30-36: 10. 45-49: 8, 25. 57-59: 22. 57-66: 8, 18, 25. 67-72: 
8. 80-85:8. 85:6. 85-88:8. 90-99:8, 18, 21. 99:12. 100- 
101:6. 106-112:19, 16, 25. 113-115:13, 22, 8. 116-118:6, 
20. 20:8. 121-127:8. 131-133:24. 135-137:6. 142-148:8. 
160-165:19. 167-170:13. 174-175:24. 174-178:25. 178-182: 
8. 192-202:19. 206-210:13,20. 213-218:20,21,17. 222- 
226:2. 233-234:6. 237-240:12,15. 242-245:20. 

Part II. Song: 26, 23, 17, 5. 5:22. 8-15:13, 20, 19. 
18-20:19. 18-27:3, 8. 28-33:10. 34-37:14, 21. 39-41:24. 
39-52:18. 53-54:18. 55-60:25. 60-71:15. 71-74:6. 74- 
84: 1. 96-100: 15. 110-120: 15. 122-124: 22. 126-140: 6. 
140-150:15. 153-155:22, 18. 155-164:6, 4. 171-178: 
14. 184-187:18, 8. 193-194:18, 8. 194-199:18. 200- 
206:18. 200-216:8. 219-227:23,12,14. 221-224:24. 228- 
237 : 23. 238-241 : 23, 8. 242-249 : 23, 8. 250-255 : 13. 259- 
261:23, 8. 261-264:18, 15. 263-271:4. 272-279:18. 280- 
290:18,8. 290-298:28,14. 299-307:13,22,18,8. 308-314: 
18, 8. 315-321:18. 321-325:15. 326-328:18. 329-335:18. 
341-346:13, 18, 21. 351-363:28. 367-325:2, 9. 374-387:6, 
18. 387-391:19. 391-399:6,18. 400-406:19,18,6. 411-416: 
13. 417-424:15. 425-428:3,11,8. 428-440:13. 442-446:8. 
450-455:24. 

Part III. Song: 5, 16, 24, 26. 1-2:22. 6. 1-6:24. 5- 
6:19. 7-25:18,8. 26-49:14. 33-36:19. 50-58:18,15. 59: 
8. 62-68: 11, 8. 72-74: 6, 19. 78: 19. 81-87: 18, 8. 88-100: 
8. 89-91:6. 96-98:6. 96-100:13, 15. 
122:12, 14. 120-122:28. 125-130:19. 
8. 149:8. 157-159:24. 162-165:13. 
26, 12. 184-189:18, 14. 191-197:18. 
214:15, 18. 205-208:6. 221-229:12. 
239:1. 240-254:11,18. 266-271:15. 
6. 283-286:6, 15, 19. 289-299:6, 19. 
6. 309-313:6. 315-321:13. 323-331:28, 15. 324-327:13. 
332-335: 15. 336-342: 28. Part III as a whole: 29, 30, 31. 

Part IV. Song: 5, 17, 24, 26. 1-2:6. 4:22. 5-8:19. 
12-17:13. 18-20:22. 21-25:24, 28. 26-30:22. 31-35:22. 



101-106:4, 


24. 107- 


131-136:4. 


137-140: 


165-173:21. 


175-180: 


201-208:27, 


8. 209- 


230-232: 18, 


8. 236- 


272-278: 13. 


280-282: 


303-315:8. 


306-309: 



136 THE PRINCESS 

21-40:5,17,24,26. 41-43:22. 44-69:11,18. 49-65:6. 53- 
57: 22, 1. 57-60:11, 18, 15. 59-65:1, 22, 4. 72-74:10, 12, 
14, 18. 75-98:5, 17, 24, 26. 100:15. 104:15. 104-110:11, 

18, 19. 110:15. 116-133:15, 19. 136-141:11, 18. 145- 
146:11, 18. 147-152:24. 154:22. 159-162:24. 160-167: 
11, 18, 2, 12. 166:6. 176-178:11, 18, 19. 182-188:13, 19. 
189-194:18. 194-195:6,24. 230-238:8,11,22. 241-248:22, 
24. 250:15. 252-256:22, 7. 258-263:27, 13, 15. 264-270: 
13. 274-276:15. 281-283:22. 280-339:18,8. 290-294:15, 
24. 330-339:14. 340-343:18, 8, 7. 344-465:13. 343-353: 
8, 11. 340-357:14. 352:15. 357-360:13, 22. 360-367:8, 
22,4. 365-367:6. 367-378:18,14. 379-386:8. 387-397:8. 
399-403:8, 16, 14. 404-407:6, 22. 408-419:16, 19, 4, 15. 
422:19, 6. 420-448:14. 425-429:16, 19. 419-442:4. 439- 
443:7,8,18. 443-448:7. 449-453:13,22. 456-460:13.456- 
468:18, 14, 12. 466-468:7. 469-476:13, 18. 480:6. 484: 

19, 494-500:19,18. 501-505:13,22,18. 506-510:18. 514- 
523:19, 18. 524-527:7. 527-534:20. 535-542:7. 554-561: 
5. 562-568:18. 570-579:21. 

Part V. 1-3:6,16. 5-10:6,19. 10-16:24,22. 10-21:13. 
24-35:13. 39:6. 32-35:18. 35-41:6,8,11. 37-39:6,19,25. 
50-59:14,18. 57-59:22,13. 60-65:8,11,18. 68-71:22.72- 
76:18. 79-91:8. 82-96:4, 16. 97-102:14. 109-115:18, 8, 
22. 115-119:18, 8. 120-133:12, 14. 2. 130-143:4, 16. 
143-146:6,8,11. 146-150:2. 151-164:2,4,16. 164-172:18. 
174-180: 1, 2, 27. 181-182: 6. 181-197: 1, 2, 27, 4, 16, 28. 190- 
197:19. 190-192:6. 197-208:18,8. 202-205:8,3. 226-235:16. 
231-232:11. 237-244:17, 24. 247-254:13, 22, 15. 258-265: 
13. 281-284: 7,15. 308-310:22,16,4. 318-320:6,8.332- 
341:16,22,24,13. 340:7. 354-357:15. 364-374:15,6.374- 
376:6. 386-392:18, 8. 396-399: 18, 8. 404-413:6. 414- 
419:18. 420-427:7, 18, 8, 12, 14. 428-434:18. 435-440: 
2,27. 441-444:6,22.27. 445-449:27. 459:7. 458-467:18, 

20, 21. 472-481:3, 18, 13. 482-493:4, 16, 17, 7. 496-499: 
18. 499-502:15. 502-508:18, 14. 509-511:6. 509-519:22, 
16, 17, 4. 520-531:31. 

Part VI. Song: 5, 17, 24, 26. 6-13:14. 10-13:8. 14- 
16:15. 17-25:22. 37-42:7. 5, 20, 21. 48-52: 16. 53-57: 
18,8. 62-66:22,13. 66-67:12. 81-91:14,4. 83:6. 92:18. 
93-111:14, 23. 106-121:24, 14, 13. 117:7. 123-146:12, 14. 



STUDY QUESTIONS 137 

134-137:13, 18. 140-146:18, 8. 154-160:19. 160-167:23. 
167-171:18,8. 172-175:18. 176-180:18. 185-189:18. 199- 
202:18. 203-209:18, 8. 213-221:8. 222-231:18, 8. 237- 
242:19. 242-247:18. 249-255:13, 11, 18. 263-266:6. 270- 
278:18, 14. 287-291:18. 304-309:18, 8, 14, 7. 310-313: 
18. 314-317:18. 318-322:18. 328-331:24. 344-351:15, 13, 
4, 16. 357-363:14, 23. 

Part VIL Song: 5, 17, 26. 8-13:4, 6. 13-19:19. 20- 
29:22. 25-29:19. 30-32:19. 30-39:4. 49-55:14, 4, 16. 
80-98:16, 17, 4. 97-103:16, 17, 4. 109-117:15. 120-125: 
18, 16, 17, 4, 23. 140-146:4, 17, 18. 147-154:22, 6, 15. 124- 
125:6. 171-174:5. 177-207:26, 5. 203-207:1, 24. 208- 
222:13, 18, 8. 223-230:18, 12, 14. 231-238:16, 17, 4. 234: 
7. 239-242:18. 243-250:9. 255-272:2, 9, 27. 273-280:2, 
4. 282-290:2, 9, 27. 292-297:9, 8. 298-312:9, 16, 17, 14. 
313-318:18,8. 320-323:6. 324-329:6. 330-337:16, 17,22, 
4. 337-345:16,17,4. 340-342:6. 

Conclusion. 17-28: 21. 29-33: 18. 39-46: 13. 49-71 : 30, 
7. 72-79:1. 80-100:20. 100-105:1. 106-115:20, 21, 16. 
116-118:21. 

FINAL REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

How does the poem gain or lose by being told in the 
first person? Is the plot a good one for the development 
of the question? How so or how not? What as deter- 
mining the outcome is the important incident? Are there 
any minor incidents that could be omitted? Why or why 
not? Is the final effect serious or burlesque? Why did 
Tennyson call the poem a medley? What is gained or 
lost by the manner of telling the story in the words of 
speakers talking idly? What new development of the 
question of woman's place in society does the poem pre- 
sent? What poetic qualities seem to you most notice- 
able in Tennyson? How significant is the poem in its 
ethical teaching? How have characters been chosen for 
the play of conflicting emotions? What is the relation 
of the setting of the story to the story itself? 



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